


I'll Rust With You

by ill_interrogate_the_cat_castiel



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Big Brother Gabriel, Bobby Singer is So Done, Brotherly Love, Cas Wants To Be Loved, Cas wants to help, Case Fic, Castiel is Sorry, Dean is happy, Dean is trusting, Djinni & Genies, Episode: s02e15 Tall Tales, Episode: s02e19 Folsom Prison Blues, Episode: s02e20 What Is and What Should Never Be, Fallen Angel Castiel (Supernatural), Fix-It, Gabriel Knows, He is trying his best, Human Castiel, Identity Reveal, M/M, Oblivious Castiel, POV Alternating, POV Castiel, POV Dean Winchester, Pining Castiel, Pining Dean Winchester, Season/Series 02, Season/Series 06, Slow Burn, Time Travel Fix-It, Worried Castiel, Worried Dean Winchester
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2019-04-19 10:41:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 21,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14235519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ill_interrogate_the_cat_castiel/pseuds/ill_interrogate_the_cat_castiel
Summary: Castiel can't stand the Winchesters being so disappointed in him and unable to trust him anymore, so he decides to fix it. To fix everything.Castiel decides travels back in time before Dean sold his soul, before Sam was taken by Azazel. He is determined to save Sam and Dean from a life time of being in Hell. He is determined to stop the Apocalypse. He will do anything to save them.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a while since I've written anything.  
> The title is from the song _I'll Rust With You_ by Steam Powered Giraffe.  
>  This chapter is in Castiel's POV.

How did it get to be like this? Bobby, Sam,  _ Dean  _ not trusting him. Can’t they see this is his only choice? Sure, working with Crowley isn’t ideal by any means, but it is much better to work with him, to put  _ him  _ in possible danger rather than putting any of the other three in danger. Right? This is what he has been telling himself for months, but Dean could barely look at him anymore and now he is questioning his plan. It’s too late to stop now. If he doesn’t finish his plan Raphael could restart the Apocalypse.

If only none of this had happened. Sam going to Hell, the Apocalypse, even Dean going to Hell. If only he were able to save Dean from selling his soul.

An idea struck Castiel. Theoretically, he could travel back in time to save him and in doing so avert the Apocalypse. It will be hard, though, he knows. Dean won’t know him and definitely won’t believe him if he says he is an angel travelling back in time to save him. No, he would have to keep his real identity from both Dean and Sam (though, Sam would be more likely to believe and trust him). He would have to pose as a hunter, perhaps, especially if he lands before the date of Sam’s death, which is likely as time travel is very difficult and rarely exact.

With his mind made up, Castiel goes to see Dean in his dreams.

When he arrives, he is surprised to see the setting is the same as when he appeared in his dream what seems like many years ago, even though it was only a few years. Dean is sitting on a dock by a silent lake, Castiel behind him.

“What do you want, Cas?” Dean asks without even turning to face him. Castiel is momentarily shocked Dean was able to know he was there, but it is  _ his  _ dream so he supposes it isn’t to surprising.

“Dean,” Castiel simply says. When he opens his mouth to say more he is hit with the realization this will be a goodbye. As he already knows, he will be going to a Dean who hasn’t met him yet, who has never trusted him before and once he changes events, this timeline will cease to exist. He will never be able to see this Dean again, the Dean he has gone through so much with. There is a pang in Castiel’s chest which he can only say is sorrow. This is for the best, though, he tells himself.

Taking a deep breath, Castiel continues. “I’ve come to tell you I will fix it; I will fix  _ everything _ .”

“I thought you said that it’s not broken,” Dean replied sharply, turning around to face Castiel. However, in contrast to the tone of his voice, Castiel can see hope in Dean’s eyes.

“Not now it can’t. It’s too late to fix my mistakes now,” he starts. Castiel continues when Dean opens his mouth to talk. “I’m going back to save you from making that deal. I will make things right.”

Dean is shocked, Castiel sees. “Cas, I thought you said you can’t change the past.”

“There are only certain specific events which can’t be changed. Your mother making a deal with Azazel being one and your’s and Sam’s births being another. Other things can be changed.”

Dean gets up and starts to pace. “Wouldn’t my whole breaking the first seal be an event that can’t be changed, too?” Dean questions. “That seems to be very important to your siblings.”

“Perhaps, but I have to try,” replies Castiel.

Dean rubs a hand on his face and walks closer to Castiel. He looks.. Upset?

“Why do you have to be so dramatic?” Dean barks out.

“I don’t understand. I thought you wanted me to fix my ‘issue,’” Castiel says with finger quotes.

“Yeah, I do. So if you are going back in time how about just going back to right before you agreed to work with Crowley!  _ That  _ is the issue here, Cas, not the whole chain of events leading up to it that we’ve already dealt with!”

“I would be saving both you and your brother from a lifetime of being in Hell, Dean,” Castiel says firmly. “I would be saving the both of you from knowing each other’s deaths.”

“Cas -”

Castiel cuts him off saying, “No matter what you say, Dean, I’m going to be doing this. I only came here to say goodbye.”

Dean’s eyes widen. “Your saying this as if I’ll never see you again.”

Castiel looks down and away from Dean. “Once I change events, this timeline should cease to exist, Dean, but it is something I have to do.” He looks up at Dean one last time. “Goodbye, Dean. I will save you, I promise. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

“Cas, wait -” Castiel sees Dean reach for him with a mix of sadness and fear in his eyes, but Castiel is gone before he can reach him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is in Dean's POV.

 

Dean has had a long past couple days. What with Sam being possessed and all. When they walk outside ready to hit the road, Dean sees a figure on the ground about fifteen feet from the front door. He motions to Sam and draws his gun, walking towards the figure. When he gets close enough, he sees it is a man in a long tan trench coat, but that isn’t the most shocking thing about him; the man is all bloody, as if to be all beat up.

“Help me, please,” says the man in a deep, gravelly voice before he passes out. Dean puts his gun away and rushes to the man.

“Sam, go get Bobby!”

“Dean who is that?” Sam asks.

“I don’t know, but whoever he is, he needs help.” As Sam rushes to Bobby, Dean puts one of the man’s arms around his shoulders and tries to walk him towards the house the best he can on his own. Soon Sam comes back out to help him, informing him Bobby is getting first aid supplies ready.

After they get him inside and on the couch, Bobby starts to get to work on him. Dean notices how he used holy water to wash of the blood, which makes total sense considering all that just happened recently. Luckily, the man doesn’t react to the holy water, nor does he react to any of the other tests Bobby does on him.

“Well, as far I can tell, he’s human, so that’s a plus,” Bobby tells them.

“Do you know this guy, Bobby?” Dean asks.

“Can’t say that I do,” Bobby replies.

“So why would he come here of all places?” Dean questions. This man could have gone to a hospital, or if he is a hunter he could have gone to a hunter he knows, but instead he comes here, far out in middle-of-nowhere Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

“Beats me,” Bobby says. “The weird thing is this guy ain’t got a single cut on him. Either all the blood came from his nose and mouth, or his wounds somehow healed themselves up.” Bobby shrugs. “We’ll just have to wait until he wakes up and ask him ourselves.”

Luckily it doesn’t take long for the man to wake up; only about an hour. The man wakes up with a gasp and sits straight up into a sitting position looking around frantically.

“Whoa, whoa,” Dean says, hands up in a calming manner as he gets close to him. The other two in the room stand up from their seats, but don’t move closer to the man, probably not wanting to overwhelm him. Dean’s voice makes the man look over to him. Dean notices how bright his eyes are. They are such a bright blue they almost don’t seem natural.

“Dean,” he says in what seems to be relief. Dean, however, is confused. How does this guy know him? He looks towards Bobby and Sam who both look equally confused as him.

“Um, yeah. Do I know you?” Dean asks, looking back towards the man on the couch. This question makes some emotion show in the man’s eyes, but it’s gone before Dean can place it.

“No, sorry. Um, I just know of you from the… wanted posters?” He doesn’t seem to confident in his answer, but Dean just puts that to the fact that he just woke up from whatever happened to him. However he seems to remember the FBI wanted posters from that incident with the skinwalker. He wonders how the man know it wasn’t him. Or maybe he was referring to the bank incident since that was more recent. Still, he somehow knows it wasn’t them.

“Hi, uh, I’m Sam, Dean’s brother,” Sam interjects, taking the man’s attention away from Dean. “We were wondering earlier why you can here instead of going to a hospital? I mean, you didn’t have any injuries so it might be something serious that caused that much blood to come out of… wherever it came out of.”

“A hospital can’t help me,” he says simply. “I just need to rest a bit and I’ll be fine in no time. And to answer your actual question, I came here because this is the only safe place I know of.” The man looks around the room. “However, it could be safer. I can help you put up some efficient warding if you would let me,” he offers to Bobby.

“You a hunter?” Bobby asks him.

“Of sorts. I, um, typically help with lore.” The man looks a bit sheepish before he says, “May I have a glass of water, please? Typically I can go without, but I’m healing still, and I think something to drink will make me feel a bit better.”

Dean gives a huff of a laugh. Who is this strange guy? “Yeah, I’ll get you some water.” The man just smiles and nods a thanks to Dean. Dean gets up and heads to the kitchen, Sam and Bobby following behind him. “So what do you guys think?” Dean asks as he grabs a cup from the cabinet and fills it with water from the sink.

“Well we know he isn’t some monster,” states Bobby, “he passed all the tests just fine.”

“Don’t you guys think it’s weird how he knew Dean, though?” questions Sam.

“I think it’s damn weird,” replies Dean, “but I just don’t think this guy is bad. There’s just… something about him, you know?” Bobby and Sam look at each other and then back at Dean, nodding. He knows they feel it too, that they can trust this guy. “So that settles it, then.” Dean walks back to the living room and sees the man laying back down on the couch. “Here you go,” Dean says, handing him the cup of water.

“Thank you, Dean.” The man gratefully gulps down the water.

“So who are you, anyway? What happened to you?” Sam asks from behind Dean.

“My name is Castiel,” he says. “I was… I guess you would say I was running away from my mistakes.” Castiel says this so shamefully that Dean feels pity for the man.

“Hey, whatever you did it couldn’t have been that bad.”

“I assure you, it was. Well, I didn’t think so until I lost those closest to me.” He is silent for a moment. “Regardless, it doesn’t matter now. There is no going back. I just ask that I may be permitted to stay with you for a while. Maybe even help you out with a couple hunts?” He asks hopefully, before adding, “You know, to help me ‘get back on my feet,’ as people say.” Dean chuckled a little at Castiel doing finger quotes.

“Alright, well, we will see how you are tomorrow, I guess. Sam and I have a case at some college campus a few states over. We were going to head out tonight, but after, well, you know,” he trailed off, gesturing to Castiel. “It seems like a simple salt and burn, so that would be a great case to help you ‘get back on your feet.’” Dean smirked as he copied his finger quotes.

Castiel nodded. “Alright. Well, thank you Dean, Sam, Bobby. I appreciate your kindness to me even though you don’t have any reason to be.”

“Well, you ain’t given any reason not to yet,” Bobby replied gruffly.

“Still, thank you.”

Dean pats his shoulder and goes upstairs to what is usually his room when he stays here. Behind him Sam says, “He seems like a good guy.”

"Yeah, he does.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Castiel's POV

 

Castiel doesn’t go to sleep when the others do; he doesn’t need to. Instead, he gets up and paints sigils and wardings around the house to protect it from demons, angels, and other supernatural beings. He had to go a bit easy on the angel wardings, though, since he would be staying here for the time being, but he put enough to keep them undetected from his brothers and sisters.

As he is putting up the wardings, he thinks about how well the three of them took to a stranger they found all bloodied up on the front lawn. Were they so trusting back before everything, quite literally, went to Hell? Maybe it’s because they think he is a hunter rather than knowing he is an angel. They were never ones to easily trust supernatural beings. Castiel is relieved, though, because it would have been much more difficult if they didn’t trust him. He heard them in kitchen earlier when Dean got him some water. He heard them say how they don’t think he is a bad guy. Castiel smiles and finishes warding the house.

Since they will still be sleeping for at least another few hours, Castiel decides to also draw out the wardings on some paper and label what they do for Bobby to reference later on. And then, last minute he decides to ward himself from angels. He isn’t sure what they would do if they find him on Earth when he isn’t supposed to be, let alone trying to stop the Apocalypse from happening. He doesn’t want to find out, either, as he is sure it would involve them doing whatever they can to extract the information of how exactly he has the knowledge of their plans for the Apocalypse.

Two hours later Bobby is back downstairs and looks around. “Well looks like you were busy last night,” he says, gesturing to some sigils.

“I told you I would ward your house for you.” Castiel hands Bobby the papers with the sigils. “I took the liberty of drawing them out for you on paper and writing what they do,” he says. Bobby looks impressed with Castiel.

“This one here says it for warding off angels?”

“Oh, it’s just something I saw somewhere,” Castiel lies. “I figured it is better to be safe than sorry.” He knows he can’t tell Bobby about angels. Not yet, anyway. Not when he needs his trust.

“Not that I’m saying they’re real, but aren’t angels supposed to be, you know, good guys?” Bobby questions making Castiel grimace a little.

“Not necessarily. Angels are soldiers. They can cause more destruction than any other creature, especially because a lot of them don’t like humans,” he informs. “Many angels see human beings more as pests, insects. They don’t kill humans out of survival like some monsters do; sometimes angels will destroy a whole town, killing all of the people residing there just to get rid of one small threat,” Castiel tells him, thinking of his siblings and his past experiences. “I’ve done a lot of research,” he adds hastily at Bobby’s bemused look. “I have a, uh, religious family.”

“Huh.”

Not long after, Dean and Sam walk down with their duffle bags on their shoulders. “Good morning, Dean. Sam.”

“Good morning, Castiel,” Sam says with a warm smile. Oh how Castiel missed the three of them treating him with kindness rather than distrust and trepidation. It may not have been long since they found out about his lies to them, a few days at the most before Castiel left, but it was a few days too many.

“You ready to hit the road?” Dean asks.

“Yes.” Castiel starts to head towards the front door.

“Whoa, whoa, slow down there,” Dean says. “Do you have your stuff?”

“My… stuff?”

“Yeah, you know, your hunting gear? Weapons, extra clothes, and such?” Dean clarifies.

“Oh. I have my blade,” Castiel says, letting the blade fall from his sleeve to his hand.

“You’ve been holding that there the whole time?” Dean asks, astonished.

Bobby comes up closer to look at the angel blade. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Is it silver?” Bobby takes it out of his hand. “Huh, it looks heavier than it is.”

“No, it’s not silver. I got it from my family. It can kill almost anything.” Anything but an archangel, basically. Castiel takes the blade back from Bobby and says, “Well, shouldn’t we get going?” Even though he is trying to distract them from asking anymore questions about his angel blade, Castiel is honestly eager for this hunt. He never really got to go on an actual hunt with Sam and Dean. Only ones which were involved in the Apocalypse or his quest to open Purgatory. So, eager to leave, Castiel sheaths his blade and walks outside to the Impala, getting in the back seat ready to go.

  
  


When they got to the campus, Dean and Sam went to a bar to question some students while Castiel went to the campus library to use the computers to find anything about the supposed haunting. Castiel doesn’t think this was a haunting, though. He can’t sense the presence of any spirit. He does, however, sense the presence of something familiar, he just can’t place it. Instead he just distracts himself with reading some of the books at the library about the campus’ past so he has some legitimate information for the brothers just in case they ask about anything specific when he returns. (He would haves used the computers, but he just couldn’t figure them out.)

On his way back to the motel he notices how it’s getting a bit late, so he picks up some food for the brothers. Bacon cheeseburger for Dean and a salad for Sam. When he gets to the motel room not to long after, Dean and Sam are already there.

“Hey, Castiel,” Sam greets. Castiel notices Sam seems a bit tired.

“Hello, Sam.”

“Hey, Cas,” Dean greets, walking out of the bathroom. Castiel smiles at the nickname.

“Hello, Dean. I brought you two food. I saw it was getting late and wasn’t sure if you had anything yet.” Castiel looks between the two of them and adds, “I would have asked, but it has occured to me that I do not have your phone numbers.” Sam laughs a little, some of his tiredness going away.

“Right, here.” They exchange phone numbers and then the boys dig into their food.

“Jeez, Cas, how did you know what I like?” Dean asks with his mouth full. Sam looks at him with a disgusted look.

“Really, Dean? You’re so disgusting. Do you have to talk with your mouth full of food?”

Dean takes an especially large bite of his burger then, with his mouth incredibly full, says, “Yeah, I do.” Sam glares at him. Castiel looks between the two of them. They seem to be easily annoyed at each other today, but he doesn’t say anything about it. He knows the two of them have their moments.

“I just took a guess,” Castiel lies. He is momentarily surprised at how easily he can lie to the two of them ever since his deal with Crowley.

Finally, Sam asks, “Did you find anything about the building? Any suicides or something?”

“No,” Castiel replies. “I don’t think this is a haunting. Besides what happened to the professor, nothing out of the ordinary has happened here.”

“We were thinking the same thing, that it isn’t a haunting,” Sam tells him.

“Yeah, except the girl the janitor described was weird,” Dean adds.

“How so?”

“Well, he said he saw her come in with the professor, but never saw her leave,” answers Sam.

“That is weird,” Castiel agrees. “Do we need to do more research?” Castiel asks.

Sam looks annoyed again. “Oh, I would love to, except Dean made my computer freeze.” Dean just rolls his eyes. Sam huffs, throws out his garbage, and says, “I’m going to sleep now.”

“Really, Sam? At eight?” Dean then stage whispers to Castiel, “Nerd, am I right?”

Castiel gives Dean a confused look. “I don’t understand. I get the feeling that you are making an insult, but from my understanding nerds are smart. Therefore are you calling your brother smart? How is that an insult?” Castiel was never able to get a hang of human’s ‘lingo’ sometimes.

Sam laughs while Dean gives him an equally confused face, his mouth slightly open. He looks as if he is about to explain, but instead says, “You know what, nevermind.” Sam continues to laugh.

“I’m missing something here,” Castiel says plainly. He wishes he were able to understand the joke, but seeing the brothers happier is much better than understanding.

It was only about an hour later when Dean decides to go to bed, saying something about it being a long day. Castiel tells him he will be going for a short walk before going to bed himself. He just says this, however, to buy him some time for Dean to fall asleep so he doesn’t question Castiel not sleeping.

When Castiel gets outside, he simply sits on the curb of the parking lot. Reaching inside of his pocket, he pulls out a picture of Sam and Dean which he has kept with him for a while now. He looked at it a lot while working with Crowley, to remind him he was doing the right thing: keeping Sam and Dean away and safe from the civil war in Heaven. He misses them, the Winchester brothers he experienced so much with. But now he gets to experience so much more with the them from the past. Hopefully none of these upcoming experiences involve Hell or the Apocalypse.

After about a half an hour, Castiel walks back inside the motel room and lays on the couch silently throughout the night.

The brothers wake up at around eight o’clock. This time, Castiel accompanies them to question more students. Except instead of hearing about the supposed ghost, they soon hear about a supposed alien abduction.

“Oh, come on. An alien abduction, now? This has got to be just some sort of prank,” Dean says, but they decide to talk to the guy. Maybe it would give them a lead on their original case.

The boy’s story is strange, to say the least. Castiel knows there are aliens out in the universe, and sure, there may have been an abduction or two on Earth in the past, but he would have sensed if something like this happened last night for sure.

Castiel offers to pick up food for lunch while the brothers check out the ‘abduction’ site. Castiel takes a longer way to the diner today so he has more time to ponder on his thoughts about this case. He feels as though he  _ knows  _ what it is they are dealing with and it is really starting to get on his nerves. He  _ knows  _ the being he senses, he’s felt it before, but he just can’t place it.

On his way back to the motel, Castiel feels as though he is being watched.

When Castiel gets back to the motel Sam and Dean are fighting again.

“I put up with a lot from you,” he hears Sam say loudly as he walks down the hallway.

“What’re you talking about? I’m a joy to be around,” Dean replies.

“Yeah? Your dirty socks in the sink? Your food in the fridge?”

“What’s wrong with my food?”

“It’s not food anymore, Dean! It’s Darwinism! And you know what, all I ask from you, the one thing, is that you don’t mess with my stuff!” Castiel opens the door and walks in at this moment, but neither seem to notice.

“You done?” Dean asks simply.

“You know, how would you feel if I screwed with the Impala?” Castiel winces a little when Sam says this, thinking of how much Dean loves his car.

“It would be the last thing you ever did,” Dean deadpans.

Sam rolls his eyes and turns, finally seeing Castiel standing by the door, a bag of food in his hands. “Hey, Castiel,” Sam says tiredly. “Sorry you had to hear that.”

“What’s going on?” Castiel asks as he sets the bag on the table. He has seen the brothers fight before, but not about something so trivial.

“Dean took my computer.” Sam glared at Dean.

“When would he have had a chance to take your computer?” Castiel questions, trying to get Sam to see reason. “You have been with him the whole time.”

“I don’t know, maybe when I was sleeping?” Sam answers.

“I was with him then and I assure you he didn’t take your computer.”

“Ha! So you did lose it!” Dean says with a smirk.

“No, I didn’t!” 

Castiel shakes his head in disagreement. “No, Sam is very organi-” His words get cut off when his head suddenly fills with ‘Angel Radio,’ making him gasp in pain. He turned it off, though, so he shouldn’t be hearing anything. It’s incredibly loud and he puts his hands to his head, bends over a little, and groans.

Through all of the angel chatter he hears Dean and Sam ask if he’s alright and senses them get closer to him. When he feels Dean put a hand on his shoulder, Castiel just backs away and says something about going outside for some fresh air. When the brothers insist on going with him, he ignores them and stumbles outside.

This doesn’t seem normal. It’s too loud and he can’t control it. Someone is doing this to him, someone found out what he is.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dean's POV.
> 
> This chapter is a lot of dialogue as it follows mostly what happened in the episode.

 

Dean is stunned still for a moment, but he soon regains his senses and rushes outside to Castiel. There is something going on with him. He looked like he was in so much pain, and worried almost. When Dean gets outside, however, Cas isn’t there.

“Cas!” He calls out. "Castiel!"

Dean tries to call his phone. " _ You've reached the voicemail of:  _ I don't understand; why - why do you want me to say my name?" And then there is a bunch of beeping as if Cas is trying to figure out a phone for the first time. Despite the situation, Dean laughs a little. Seriously, who is this guy?

Sam rushes out only seconds later and looks around. “Where is he?”

“I don’t know,” Dean says, worried. It’s his fault. This man was bleeding in the yard not even two days ago, Dean shouldn’t have brought him with on a hunt so early. But there is just something about him that makes Dean trust him, makes him  _ want _ the guy around.

“Do you think it has something to do about what’s been going on around town?” Sam asks.

“Maybe, but the people having shit happen to them are dicks. Cas doesn’t fit the MO,” Dean reasons.

“We actually don’t know that, Dean.” Dean opens his mouth to retaliate, but Sam continues before he has a chance. “We met him, what? Two days ago? We don’t know anything about him. He just showed up at Bobby’s out of nowhere. He didn’t even have a car, Dean, so that means he walked all the way to Bobby’s from who knows where, all bloodied up.”

“So? You said yourself that he doesn’t seem like a bad guy,” Dean points out. “Besides, he hasn’t given us any reason to not trust him. I’m telling you, Sam, we can trust him. He’s one of the good guys.”

After a moment Sam sighs, shakes his head, and says, “No, you’re right. I’m just a little on edge. A lot has been going on recently. I’ll call Bobby and see if he can help us figure this out.”

Bobby got there in about ten hours. In the meantime, Sam and Dean found out about another victim. A research scientist who did animal testing. Once again, a dick, so it fits the pattern that’s been going on. All except Cas, that is. This research scientist was supposedly eaten by a alligator in the sewers. Honestly, what are they dealing with? Ghosts, aliens, and now sewer gators, too?

After checking out the sewers, Dean found the air let out of the tires of his Impala. He then finds Sam’s money clip at the scene of the crime, and Dean is livid. He is upset enough to momentarily forget about the case and even Cas.

He gets back to the motel and tells Sam off for messing with his Baby. Sam denies it, of course, but just yesterday he threatened to screw with the Impala because he thought Dean stole his computer, which he didn’t. Even Cas testified to that.

Bobby gets there an hour after that. The boys tell the story of what’s been going on, but Sam obviously has some minor details wrong.

After getting through the three victims and Cas’ disappearance, Bobby says, “I’m surprised at you two. I really am.” Bobby sounds a bit disappointed with them. “Sam, first off, Dean did not steal your computer.” Bobby says this as if he were talking to a six year old.

“But I -” Bobby shushes him when Sam tries to fight back against that claim. Dean gives Sam an ‘I told you so’ look.

“And, Dean, Sam did not touch your car.”

“Yeah,” Sam says with his own ‘I told you so’ look. Dean just gives a slight eye roll.

“And if you two bothered to pull your heads out of your asses it all would have been pretty clear.”

Dean gives him a confused look. “What?”

“What you’re dealing with.”

Dean tries to think but can’t come up with anything that makes sense to what has been going on. “I got nothing.”

“Me neither.”

“You got a trickster on your hands.” Bobby says as if it was the most obvious thing.

"That's what I thought," Dean says with a smirk and a snap of his fingers.

"What? No, you didn't!" Sam replies.

"I gotta tell you," Bobby continues, "you guys were the biggest clue." When Sam asks him what he means Bobby says, "These things create chaos and mischief as easy as breathing, and it's got you so turned around and at each other's throats, you can't even think straight. It knows you're onto him and it's been playing you like fiddles."

“But what would a trickster want with Cas?” Dean questions. “That still doesn’t make sense to me. Cas doesn’t fit the MO. Even  _ if  _ he did, there is no way the Trickster would know about it.”

“You're right there. Tricksters target the high and the mighty, knock 'em down a peg, usually with a sense of humor. Deadly pranks, mostly."

"So why Cas, then?"

"Well, you said Castiel was trying to get you two to see reason when you were arguing, right?” Dean nods. “Well, maybe that interfered with his plans because if you two weren’t bickering the whole Goddamn time, you would have figured out what was going on.”

“So, what, he’s going to kill Cas for playing counselor?” Dean asks astonished. That's such bull shit! 

“Maybe,” Bobby says with a shrug. “Who knows what he’ll do. A trickster is a Pagan God, after all. We just have to find out who it is before he does kill Castiel.”

“What do tricksters look like?” questions Sam.

“Human, mostly.”

“And who do we know that’s been at ground zero the whole time?” Dean asks Sam.

“The janitor. It must be him.”

They head back to Crawford Hall to talk to the janitor. Well, Dean talks to him while Sam goes through his stuff in the locker room. Afterwards they make a show of arguing so the Trickster doesn’t know they are sure it’s him. Sam leaves to go ‘find’ evidence with Bobby while Dean waits there.

Dean is itching to get inside, worried of what the trickster did or will do to Cas. If he even has him, that is.

A few hours later it’s finally show time.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Castiel's POV  
> Get ready for some Gabriel and Castiel brother time (:

 

Castiel suddenly appears in some room. Thankfully, Angel Radio finally stops buzzing in his head. He looks around the room and sees a familiar face. “Gabriel?” Castiel is shocked. His brother died in the original timeline to help them stop the Apocalypse. Castiel didn’t think he would see him again, at least not so soon.

“Castiel, I thought that was you. Now, what is Heaven’s loyal little angel doing here on Earth?” Before Castiel could answer Gabriel adds, “Wait, how did you know who I am? I have been in hiding from all of Heaven for at least a millenium. I’m the Trickster, now, not even the biggest of the bros were able to find me and yet you recognize me right away.” Once again, when Castiel opens his mouth to speak Gabriel interjects. “And why are you with the Winchesters of all people? I thought the big baddies upstairs would have especially forbade that.”

“I’m not from this timeline, Gabriel,” Castiel cuts in before Gabriel can continue to speak. “I’ve seen you before, in my original timeline, that is how I knew who you were,” he explains.

“What happened that was bad enough for a loyal soldier like you to try to mess with time?” Gabriel asks, sitting down to eat a candy bar. 

“I’m no ‘loyal soldier’ anymore.” Castiel explains all that happened. From Dean making a crossroads deal to the civil war in Heaven. Throughout the story, Gabriel just sits and listens, eating a variety of sweets.

When Castiel finishes, Gabriel shakes his head and smirks. “Of course it would be you of all angels.” He seems to have said this mostly to himself, but Castiel is curious.

“What do you mean?”

“Castiel, I remember when you were just a little fledgling. I was there as you grew up. For a while, anyway. But you were as curious about humans just as much as you were loyal to Heaven.” Gabriel actually smiles. “I remember you asking me to tell you stories about the humans, saying how one day you will meet one. You were like  _ The Little Mermaid  _ but with wings instead."

Castiel is confused. “I don’t remember any of this,” he admits, ignoring the reference he doesn't understand.

“Of course you don’t. The bitch Naomi wiped your memories of those,” he says grimly.

“Why would she do that?”

“You had the potential to be a fantastic warrior,” Gabriel tells him, “and she couldn’t risk you falling because of the humans.” Gabriel smirks again. “But look at you now. You may not have fallen from grace, but you definitely have fallen, haven’t you.” Gabriel winks at him.

Tilting his head to the side, Castiel says, “I don’t understand what you mean.”

“Dean…?” Gabriel says with his eyebrows raised.

“Yes, what about him?”

Gabriel looks up to the ceiling and says, “Father, please help me.” Looking back at Castiel he says, “You like him, right?”

“Of course I do. I don’t think I would be doing this if I disliked him,” Castiel tells him, still not knowing what his brother is trying to say.

“But you don’t like him as much as Sam?” Gabriel continued.

“As much as I do enjoy Sam and his company, I admit, Dean and I do share a more profound bond.” Gabriel looks as if he is going to burst.

He takes a deep breath as if to calm himself. “You know what, I’ll let you figure it out for yourself,” Gabriel tells him. He then claps his hands and stands up. “Whelp, time to get ready for the big show,” he says as he snaps his fingers, dressing himself in what seems to be a janitor’s uniform. And then it clicks for Castiel.

“You are the one behind this strange case,” Castiel says. It all makes sense now. The sense of ‘humor’ that has been going on, Dean and Sam arguing over things that didn’t happen, the feeling of something familiar. It was Gabriel.

“Yup,” he said, popping the p. “And your boy toys are on their way now. Well, Dean is already here, ready to go, guns blazing. Well, more like stakes stabbing?” As Gabriel ponders his phrasing, Castiel feels something in his chest.

“You can’t hurt him, Gabriel,” Castiel tells him sharply. “You can’t hurt any of them.”

“Look, Cassie, I get you…  _ care  _ for Dean - and the others, obviously - but you can’t just expect them to expect me to just stand the and take a stake to the chest, even if it won’t really kill me. They would expect me to fight back.” Castiel knows he is right, but he doesn’t like the idea of them getting hurt. It isn’t like he can heal them when he is supposed to just be a hunter. Gabriel must’ve seen Castiel’s put-out expression because he sighs and says, “I promise I won’t hurt them too bad. Just a few bruises and scratches. Happy?”

No, Castiel thought, but it would have to do. So he nods. “Alright.” As Gabriel was about to leave Castiel suddenly says, “What if you help out?”

“Excuse me?”

“Help me avert the Apocalypse.”

“Look, Castiel, I love you, I really do. I’d probably say you’re one of my favorite siblings, but I left Heaven for a reason,” Gabriel says sternly. “I left because I didn’t want to see my family fight. If I help you with this, I will definitely be sucked back into the fighting.” Castiel looks down. He isn’t sure if he can handle such a big task on his own. He has never been on his own like this. He either had his garrison or the Winchesters to help him out. Castiel looks up when he hears Gabriel sigh. “Fine, I’ll help where I can. But don’t expect it to be anything grand or for it to be often. And it will be under the guise of the Trickster.” Castiel smiles.

“Thank you, brother,” he says, smile still wide on his face.

“Yeah, yeah. Now I gotta skadoodle outta here before I miss my entrance. Oh, and be ready for your’s.” And with a snap of his fingers Gabriel is gone, without explaining what he means.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dean's POV  
> Mostly just the fight between the boys and the Trickster. Lemme tell ya, when writing this I kept writing Gabriel instead of the trickster. I'm pretty sure I got all the mistakes fixed, though.

 

Dean walks into the building and makes his way downstairs. When he doesn’t find the Trickster there, he goes back up to where he came from, and then up one more set of stairs. There is where he suddenly hears music coming from a lecture hall and walks in to see a bed up in the front with two beautiful girls on it. Not only that, but there was a disco ball and colored lights. Dean walks closer to the girls because  _ damn  _ they are hot.

The girls crawl over to the end of the bed. “We’ve been waiting for you, Dean,” the dark haired girl says.

“You guys aren’t real,” Dean says, mostly to himself.

“Trust me, sugar, it’s gonna feel real,” the dark haired girl tells him. Dean lets out a small “ha” because as much as he would love this, he has more important things to do, like killing the Trickster and finding Cas.

“Come on, let us give you a massage,” the blond girl speaks.

“Look, I’m a sucker for a happy ending, but I’m - I’m gonna have to pass,” he tells them.

“They’re a peace offering,” he hears from behind him. He turns around and sees the trickster is sitting in one of the seats. “I know what you and your brother do,” he tells him. “I’ve been around a while; run into your kind before.”

“Well, then you know I can’t let you just keep hurting people.” Dean wants nothing more than to plunge the stake into him and find Cas, but he has to stick to the plan.

The Trickster rolls his eyes dramatically and tips his head back as he says, “Come on! Those people got what was coming to them. Hoisted on their own petards.”

“What about Cas, huh? He didn’t do anything,” Dean says sternly.

“Cas? Is that what you call him? Sheesh, you’ve known him for three days and you’ve already got yourself a nickname for sweet, little Castiel,” he says with a smirk, as if he knows something important.

Wait… “How do you know how long I’ve known him?” Instantly Dean’s mind goes to the Trickster torturing Cas until he gave him info. Dean’s rage grew.

“Jeez, calm down there, Deano. I didn’t hurt him, I just know a little about a lot of things.”

“Why should I believe you?”

The Trickster rolls his eyes and snaps his fingers. At first Dean doesn’t notice anything, but then the Trickster points upwards with a smirk. Dean looks up and sees Cas hanging from the ceiling with one of those stage levitation devices. Strapped on to Cas is a pair of white fake feathered wings and there is a fake halo on his head. “Dean,” Cas says in what seems to be relief despite his current situation. Then Cas seems to actually notice what is going on since he starts to looks around his surroundings. When he notices the wings, he throws a glare at the Trickster. “Really?” Cas asks annoyedly.

”See, unharmed.” The Trickster purposely ignores Cas. “Are you happy?”

“I’d have been happier if you never took him in the first place.” Dean glares at him.

“Is it ever enough for you two? ‘Oh, don’t you hurt him,’” he says in a mock of Cas’ voice. “‘You shouldn’t have taken him,’” he says, now mocking Dean’s voice. The Trickster sighs. “Look, you and Sam? I like you guys, I do. And I’m especially fond of 'Cas,' too. He looks just like an angel, doesn’t he?” There is a spark of something in the Trickster’s eyes when he says this, as if he is laughing at an inside joke. “So treat yourself, Dean, for as long as you want,” he says with a grin, motioning to the bed in front of them. “Just long enough for me to move along to the next town.”

“Yeah, I don’t think I can let you do that,” he tells him with a small shake of his head.

“I don’t wanna hurt you,” he tells Dean as he opens a candy bar. “And you know that I can.” He takes a large bite out of his candy bar.

“Look, man, I gotta tell you, I dig your style, alright?” Dean looks back at the girls. “I mean, heh, I do.” When he looks up, he sees Cas seems more tense and his jaw is clenched tight. Dean can only imagine how uncomfortable he must be up there. “And the slow-dancing alien?” Dean and the Trickster both have a laugh.

“One of my personal favorites.”

“Yeah, but uh, I can’t let you go.”

“Too bad,” the Trickster says right away as if he knew he was going to say that. “Like I said, I liked you. Sam was right,” he says, “you shouldn’t have come alone.”

“Well, I’ll agree with you there.” And just on schedule, Sam and Bobby open up the doors to the lecture hall. The trickster’s grin falls off his face as he turns to look in the direction of Sam.

With a surprised and sort of proud look on his face, the Trickster says, “That fight you guys had outside, that was a trick?” Dean just grins and shrugs. “Hmm. Not bad. But you wanna see a real trick?” With a snap of his fingers a masked man with a chainsaw is behind Sam. Dean goes to stake the son of a bitch, but one of the girls holds his arm back.

As he fights her off and Sam fights the chainsaw guy off, the Trickster just sits and laughs. When the girl throws him, Dean hears Cas shout his name. Dean takes a second to look up at him and sees how Cas obviously wants to help, but thanks to the Trickster, he is stuck in the air only being able to watch. The next thing Dean knows, he is being pulled up by one of the girls, punched, and then pushed to the other one. Dean tries to fight them off, but it isn’t easy to fight off two powered up girls. And, once again, he is thrown, this time to the direction of the Trickster.

“Ha! Nice toss, ladies!” the Trickster exclaimes, clapping his hands. “Nice show.” Dean groans and turns over and sees the stake. Sam sees it too. “Dean. Dean, Dean, Dean,” the Trickster starts. Sam tosses the stake to Dean. “I did  _ not  _ want to do this.” Dean catches the stake and then turns and stabs the Trickster in the chest. He grunts in pain and all of his conjurations start to disappear. As Dean pulls the stake out, to his left Cas falls down and somehow lands perfectectly, despite how he was hanging up there. His little angel accessories are gone.

“You guys okay?” Dean asks Sam and Bobby as they come beside him.

“Yeah.”

“Cas? You good?” Cas is staring at the Trickster’s dead body, his head tilted in a way that it seems as if he is listening to something. “Cas?” Dean repeats louder.

“Huh?” Cas blinks a few times and then finally looks at him. “Yes, sorry, I’m good.” He sounds distracted.

“He didn’t do anything to you, did he?” Dean asks, worried. Cas has been a strange guy as far as he knew him, but he’s been strange in a sort of adorable, innocent way. Right now, however, he is acting strange in a different… strange kind of way.

“No. Aside from the, um, piercing loudness in my head earlier and hanging be up from the ceiling unable to help you guys out, he didn’t do anything to me.” Cas looks at the dead Trickster. “He just talked to me, mostly. He told me I reminded him of one of his favorite brothers.” Cas has a small smile on his face.

“Wait, Pagan Gods have siblings?” Dean asks.

“Well, I’m sure they consider the other Gods as sort of their siblings perhaps,” Cas tells him. Huh, Dean never thought of that.

“Well, I gotta say, he had style,” Dean says as he flips the stake. He groans as he turns to leave.

“Dean, you’re hurt,” Cas says. He reaches up a hand to touch his wound on his head, but seemed to have thought better of it as he brought his hand back down. “I wish I could help you.” Cas looks down at his hands with a sorry look on his face as if he thought himself useless.

“Hey,” says Dean to catch his attention. “You can help me out with the first aid stuff when we get back to the motel.”

With a pained expression Cas admits, “I don’t know how to do that.” Dean gives him a confused look. He’s a hunter, shouldn’t he know basic first aid?

“Well, I’ll show you then, I guess.”

“Sorry to break up this little party the two of you got here,” Bobby interrupts, “but we need to get the hell outta Dodge  _ now  _ before somebody finds that body.” They all agree and rush outside to the Impala. Dean gets into the driver’s seat, Sam in the passenger’s seat, and Cas and Bobby in the back. They stop at the motel to grab their stuff and to see to their wounds.  After all that, Bobby gets into his own car and leaves.

After Bobby is gone, Cas says, “I have to go for a while.”

“Go? Go where? You don’t even have a car,” Dean states. For some reason it really bothers him that Cas is going to be leaving.

“I’ll take a bus, then,” he informs. “I need to see someone for important information. I assure you, I wouldn’t be leaving unless absolutely necessary.”

“It’s alright, Castiel,” Sam says with a small smile. “You don’t have to explain yourself. You do have your own life, after all.” Dean doesn’t say anything, because he knows Sam is right. Cas has his own things to do. It’s not as if they are his only friends or people he knows. Dean wants to offer to have them drive him and for them to tag along, but for some reason he knows Cas won’t agree to it.

“I will be back,” he assures them. “It shouldn’t take long. Maybe a week or two weeks at the most.” Cast looks from Sam to Dean. “Thank you for being so kind to me.”

“No need to thank us,” Dean tells him. “Feel free to stop by any time. Bobby’s door will always be open for you, I’m sure.” Cas smiles gratefully. “See you around, Cas.”

“Goodbye, Dean.”

Dean and Sam get into the Impala and drive away, Cas slowly disappearing in the rear-view mirror.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Classic Cas making it seem he will stay for a while and then leaving for personal business)  
> I've got some plans for a certain character to come in next chapter. Also, I don't really want to just rewrite every single episode, you know? So Cas going to see this person is a win-win in my book.  
> Oh, also, in case you didn't catch on, when Cas was looking at Gabe's 'dead' body all distractedly, it is because they were communicating to each other in their minds. It'll be explained more next chapter.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Castiel's POV

 

When Castiel is sure the boys are a distance away, Castiel does what Gabriel suggested to him after he 'died': find someone who can help him with his mission; someone who can give him useful information about Azazel and where he is, or at least when he will take Sam. Luckily, Castiel knows the perfect person for the job.

Castiel appears in a house he hasn’t been to in a long while: the house of the prophet Chuck Shurley. His sudden appearance makes the prophet jump up from where he was working.

“How - how did you get in here?!” He questions, holding his hands up in front of him.

“Chuck Shurley, my name is Castiel and I need your help,” Castiel tells him.

“Castiel?” Chuck looks shocked and confused. “How do you know that name? I only just started writing him into my stories, I haven’t told anyone about him.”

Castiel rolls his eyes slightly. “You are a prophet of the Lord. What you write are actually events that happen. I am actually an angel of the Lord, as you already knew. Sort of.”

It takes a few minutes for Chuck to digest this information, pouring and chugging drinks multiple times, but when he speaks again he says, “So you’re the one who is ruining my story?”

“I’m sorry?”

“I had it all written out. I even had a few books after  _ Tall Tales  _ written out, you know? And then one day I just - I had to restart that whole book and the fix up some of the others after it because there was this new character: Castiel,” Chuck explains. “Except I didn’t write down that he was an angel, and I kept the part of him talking to the Trickster, who I ended up making  _ the  _ Gabriel, out of the story. It just felt like too much, you know? Angels suddenly showing up into the story with no context?” Chuck gives Castiel a slightly annoyed look. “Hell, even Dean, Sam, and Bobby all changed, just a little bit. I had to scrap basically the whole first copy, you know? Writing isn’t fun. It’s hard.”

“I apologize for the inconvenience, then, but it had to be done. I’m here because -”

“Because you want me to help you stop the yellowed eyed demon from taking Sam. Yeah, I know.” Chuck looks up at Castiel. “Look, Castiel, I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that this is  _ real _ .” Chuck pours himself another drink.

“Chuck, I’m just asking that you tell me if you’ve had any visions about Azazel and what he is up to. I need to save Sam,” Castiel pleads.

“So you can save Dean.” Chuck has a soft expression on his face. It makes him think of Gabriel when they were talking about Castiel’s going back in time.

“Yes.”

“You really care for him, don’t you.” Chuck smiles a little. “Alright, I’ll help you the best I can.”

Castiel feels as if a weight has been lifted off his shoulders. “Thank you.”

Chuck goes to his desk and starts to go through his papers. “All I really know at the moment is that he is taking the special children, the ones like Sam, to some hidden town.”

“Do you have any idea where he might be at the moment?” Castiel takes a few steps closer. "Or where this town is?"

“No, but I think the time is getting closer to when he takes Sam,” Chuck says, looking you at Castiel for a short moment before continuing going through his papers. “It won’t be for a while yet. Maybe a month. Maybe more.” After a bit more searching, Chuck falls into his chair defeated. “I’m sorry, Castiel, I don’t have anything that could help yet.” Castiel feels a strong disappointment. He thought he would be able to get more information.

“Thank you,” is all Castiel says. As he is getting ready to leave Chuck stops him.

“Castiel, you know the name of the yellow eyed demon, right?”

“Yes?”

“Why don’t you just summon it?” Castiel stands there marveling at his slow thinking. All he needs to do is summon Azazel and kill him. Though he is sure Sam and Dean would like to be the ones to do the honor of killing him as he did kill both of their parents.

“If he is summoned and I am there,” Castiel starts, “he would reveal my identity as an angel to Sam and Dean. I would lose their trust all over again.”

“But it would save them, right? Isn’t that what’s important?” Chuck offers. “Besides, I’m sure Sam would take it easily enough.”

“That may be, but I would rather die and live in a world where Dean can’t stand to be around me due to the fact I’m a supernatural being,” Castiel says with finality.

“Then what if you weren’t an angel anymore?”

“You mean… What if I fell from grace and became human?” Castiel thinks back to during the Apocalypse when he was only mostly human. It definitely wasn’t fun, but if it is what he had to do… For Dean, he would do it.

It was as if his thoughts were enough to start the process. Soon he saw nothing but darkness.

 

When Castiel wakes up he expects to feel pain, but he doesn’t. He does feel hunger, though.

“Oh, good, after almost three weeks you’re finally awake.” It wasn’t Chuck’s voice he heard. “You know, that was a stupid thing for you to do. Now you’ve fallen in every sense of the word.”

Castiel blinks up to the person talking. “Gabriel?”

“The one and only.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I called him.” This time it was Chuck’s timid voice speaking. “You didn’t seem to be doing so hot, and I knew Gabriel knew about you so I, uh, I prayed and told him about your… condition. He made sure you didn’t die or something.”

“Wait, three weeks? I was asleep for three weeks?” Castiel says suddenly. When he tries to sit up, though, his head aches making him groan.

“Whoa, easy there, Cassie,” Gabriel says. “You’re human now, so you have to deal with human things. Things such as, but not limited to: hunger, needing to use the bathroom, showering, and disorientation after being asleep for three weeks.” Gabriel pushes him down so he is fulling on the couch.

“I told Sam and Dean I would be back in no more than two weeks. It’s been three.” Gabriel rolls his eyes at this.

“Do you see how smitten he is?” Gabriel addresses Chuck. Chuck just smiles and nods once. “Look, typically I would just have you get better the human way, but I’m sure you would do anything you can to just get up and go to the Winchesters, so just this once I’ll heal you.” Gabriel tells him as it touches his fingers to Castiel’s temple. “Don’t want you getting killed just after you sacrificed you wings for Deano, now do we?  _ The Little Mermaid _ , indeed.” Gabriel adds with a fond smirk.

“Except Castiel has a soul,” Chuck adds. To this Gabriel just rolls his eyes.

“Dean called a couple of times, by the way.” Gabriel hands him his phone. “Mr. Prophet over there didn’t want to answer it since he is still weird about the fact that Dean and Sam are real, and I knew they wouldn’t want to speak to me, so we just turned it off.”

Castiel, feeling so much better now that Gabriel healed him, scrambles to get his phone turned on. When he see he has four missed calls from Dean and one from Sam, Castiel feels slightly panicked. Castiel looks sharply at his brother. “They could be in danger, Gabriel!”

“Relax, bro. I made sure they were alright.”

Castiel listens to the voicemails Dean left him.

_ “Dude, what’s up with your voicemail? Anyway, just calling to see how you’re doing. You haven’t checked in yet and it’s been almost two weeks. Just wondering if you’re good or if you need help or something.” _

_ “Cas, I know I just called yesterday, but you still haven’t checked in.” _

_ “Hey, Cas, come on. I get it if you don’t plan on seeing us again, but at least tell me if you’re okay. Before you left I got the feeling you were going to be doing something dangerous. It would really help me rest to know you’re okay.” _

_ “Heh. I don’t know why I’m so worried, you know? I only knew you for a few days, yet it’s almost as if I’ve known you for years. Sorry, that probably sounds weird. Just give me a call back when you have a chance.” _

_ “Hey, Castiel, it’s Sam. Just calling because Dean is being so annoying about this. Can you call him back just so he can shut up? It would mean a lot, thanks.” _

Castiel dials Dean’s number.

_ “Cas?”  _ Castiel smiles upon hearing Dean’s voice, feeling calmer. Something in his chest almost seems to flutter.

“Hello, Dean.”

_ “Hey, look, Cas, as much as I would like to chat and catch up, Sam and I are about to get ourselves arrested.”  _ Castiel furrows his brows.

“What? On purpose?”

_ “Yeah.” _

“Dean, you can’t honestly be this stupid.”

_ “I’m sorry?” _

Castiel rolls his eyes. “You and your brother are wanted men.”

_ “Don’t worry, it’s for a case, we have it under control.” _

“Dean-”

_ “Sorry, Cas, gotta go.”  _ Dean hangs up. Castiel just stares at his phone for a while.

“Where are they?” He asks Gabriel.

“Currently? The Arkansas Museum of Anthropology,” Gabriel answers. “I wouldn’t get going to go there just yet,” Gabriel says as Castiel gets up. “They’ll be taken to a prison, probably. You should wait a little bit.”

“They’ll be at the Green River County Detention Center,” Chuck informs them. “Probably by later today. Tomorrow at the latest.”

“Then that’s where I’ll go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is not where I was expecting the story to go. It just sort of happened. To be honest, maybe I subconsciously knew this is what I wanted. I was reading the previous chapter to make sure things made sense with this one and I just sorta lost it with the thing Gabriel did to Cas, right? He was hanging in the air with fake wings and a fake halo. Then afterwards Cas _fell_ beside Dean and _his angel stuff was gone_. I'm blown away by that, to be honest. Heck, even my title, which I just picked out because it's a song I've been listening to a lot, makes sense. Like, Cas will grow old, "rust," with Dean now that he is human.  
>  Anyway, I realize Chuck may be a bit OOC, but I feel like he would cool the whole, well, _Chuck_ act to help his son with saving the love of his life, you know?


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dean's POV.  
> This follows a lot of the episode _Folsom Prison Blues_ but it's different, too.

 

Dean still can’t believe how awful Cas’ timing is. Dean spent all that time trying to get through to him and he finally calls back right before he and Sam start their plan for getting arrested. Now he is sitting in solitary confinement because of his little fight with Lucas in the cafeteria. It isn’t too long being in there when Dean notices the clock stop, the flickering lights, and the sudden drop in temperature. Then he hears Lucas scream.

After his time in solitary is done, Dean is outside playing cards with one of the other prisoners when one of the guards yell out, “Dean and Sam Winchester, you have a visitor.” Dean gets up, grabs the smokes he won, and follows the guard, Sam following closely behind. He isn’t one hundred percent sure who it is, but it can only be one of three people: Bobby (not likely), their lawyer (possible), or Cas (also possible). When they get to the visitor’s room, Dean is glad to see it’s Cas. They take their place in the booth and Dean takes the phone off the hook, holding it between him and Sam so they can both hear the conversation.

“Heya, Cas,” Dean says with a smile. For some unexplainable reason, Dean missed the man he only knew for a short while. It’s been three weeks since he’s seen him last, but Dean can tell something is different about him. He looks tired. He didn’t even look tired after they found him in Bobby’s yard. “You alright?” Dean asks, genuinely concerned.

“Hello Dean. Sam,” he greets. “Yes, I’m alright. Just tired. A lot has happened since I've last seen you. How long do you plan to be in here?”

“We don’t know exactly,” Sam answers. “Hopefully not more than a week because not only do we have to take care of the ghost here, but because of Dean’s  _ brilliant  _ plan, the FBI agent who has been trying to find us found us.” Sam glares and Dean who just rolls his eyes. Quieter, Sam continues, “If we don’t have a good enough escape plan we might go to federal prison.”

“I’ll make sure that won’t happen,” Castiel tells them intensely.

“So what brings you by, Cas? I have a feeling it’s not a social call,” Dean says. He wishes Cas would visit just because he wants to, but he can see Cas has some sort of news. How he knows this, Dean isn’t sure. He just does.

“Right, I need your help with a demon.”

Both Sam and Dean blink in surprise. “A demon?” Dean can definitely say he was not expecting that.

“Yes, a particularly strong demon. He did something to a friend of mine, and to a few dozen of other people, and we need to stop him before something terrible happens.” Dean hasn’t seen Cas so serious before. He typically seems serious, but this is cranked up much more than normal.

“Cas, what sort of demon is this?” Sam asks. Dean looks at his brother then back at Cas. Is it possible Cas is talking about the same demon they’ve been hunting their whole lives.

“A yellow eyed demon. I heard he has caused troubles for you both.”

Dean scoffs. “He’s done more than ‘cause troubles’ for us. He basically ruined our lives!”

“Yes, so that is why I thought you two would like to help me deal with him.”

“How did you find him?” Sam asks, sitting on the edge of his seat.

“I didn’t per se. But I know his name, so we can summon him.”

“But we don’t have the Colt, he does. We wouldn't be able to kill him even if we summoned him,” Dean points out. He wants to know how exactly he found out its name and if it has to do with the reason he's been MIA the past three weeks.

“I’ve got that taken care of. Just, please, hurry up and get out of there before it is too late.” And with that Castiel hangs up his end, nods a goodbye to the boys, and leaves. Dean then hangs up their end and he and Sam are escorted back outside.

“I can’t believe Cas found him,” Dean says, disbelief and a sort of happiness mixing into his voice.

“Don’t you think it’s weird, though? Cas disappears, ignoring our calls, just to show up again three weeks later saying he can summon the same demon we’ve been hunting our whole lives?”

“Sure, it's weird, but it’s a good thing. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, Sammy,” Dean says.

Sam on the other hand doesn't seem to agree. “Dean, everything about Cas has been weird. He shows up - out of nowhere - in Bobby's front lawn, covered in blood. None of us knew him, yet he came to us for 'help' even though he seemed just fine the next day. Then, he's apparently a hunter with no experience in first aid.  _ Then _ he leaves for three weeks, basically off the grid, and he comes back with just the information we've been needing for forever?" Sam shakes his head with a slight frown. “He’s hiding something from us. Something big.”

Dean just shrugs. "We don't have a reason  _ not _ to trust him, though. So until we do, we listen to what he says about this."

"You’re only saying this because of your man crush on the guy.”

“What? I don’t have a man crush on him,” Dean says defensively. Sure, Dean think Cas is endearing with his adorable strange ways, and sure, Dean thinks Cas is an attractive guy, but that doesn’t mean he has a  _ crush _ on him. "I'm just saying,  _ we _ don't have any leads on Yellow Eyes at all, so it's worth giving this a shot." Sam gives him a look. “So did you find out anything on Moody or what?” Dean asks to change the subject.

Sam rolls his eyes but goes along with it, dropping the Cas issue for now. “I think I know where we might find his remains. Blood in his old cell.”

The ghost isn’t Moody. They are back to square one which is bad for them since they don’t have any way to do efficient research. Sam suggests they talk to Randall, they guy who gave him the information about Moody before.

“You want to know about some nurse?” Randall asks. “Why do you want to know?”

“Well, we got our reasons, but we’ll make it worth your while.” Dean pulls out a pack of cigarettes and Randall takes them. “So this nurse, she would’ve had white hair, one screwed-up eye, is that ringing a bell?”

“Yeah,” Randall answers. “Yeah, I remember her.”

“You remember her name?”

“No, that’s still kind of fuzzy.” Dean knows this guy is trying to get more cigarettes out of him; they are basically the currency here, after all, but Dean doesn’t want to give up his hard-earned cigarettes.

“Give it to him,” Sam tells him.

“I earned these.”

“Dean.” Sam gives him a look clearly saying  _ ‘What does it matter?’ _ so with an eye roll Dean hands over another pack of cigarettes which Randall gladly accepts.

“Glockner. Nurse Glockner,” he finally answers. “Nasty, old bitch worked here in the seventies.”

“You knew her?”

“I met her once. Had to get a tetanus shot. She damn near jabbed the needle through the other side of my arm. At least I got out of there alive.”

“What do you mean?” asks Sam.

“Oh, there were these stories, you know. I don’t know if they were true. Cons love to talk, but we’re all liars,” he answers.

“What kind of stories?”

“Well, guys would go up to the infirmary with a cold, next thing you know, they were in a body bag,” he says. “A whole rash of heart attacks - young guys and old guys.” Randall continues through his story. On the upside, it seems like this is their ghost. On the downside, however, they don’t know what happened to her.

In the cafeteria, Dean and Sam are discussing what to do next. "We have to figure out if she’s buried, and if so, where,” Sam tells him. “And we’ve got five hours to do it.” Dean gives him a look because he knows he won’t feel right leaving without finishing the case. “No, don’t give me that look. We are leaving here tonight.”

“I just don’t want to let Deacon down, that’s all,” Dean says. “We do owe him.”

“Yeah, but we don’t owe him our lives, Dean.” Part of Dean wants to disagree, because if Deacon hadn’t saved their dad in the corps, the likelihood of them being alive today is slim. So instead of saying anything, Dean gets up when he hears the buzzer. “Where are you going?”

“I’m gonna go talk with Cas.”

Dean puts in a request for a visitor and within the hour he is able to talk to Cas.

“Dean,” Castiel greets.

“Cas, I need you to do something for us. You’re basically our last hope, man.”

Cas gives him a worried look. “Whatever you need, Dean, just ask and I’ll do it.” Cas is so firm and determined to help them it makes Dean smile. God, how can Sam think this man is some bad guy?

“I need you to do research on a nurse who worked here in the seventies. Her name was Glockner,” Dean informs. “I need you to find out everything you can about her, but most importantly, how she died and where she is buried.”

“Is she the ghost?” Castiel asks.

“Yeah, we think so.”

Castiel nods. Looking even more determined he says, “I’ll find out all I can about Nurse Glockner from the seventies as fast as I can. Would you like me to come back here after I find the information, or would you like me to burn her remains if they are not somewhere in the building?”

“Take care of it if you are able to, but be quick about it, alright?” Dean urges. “We have less than five hours left before our escape plan is supposed to take action.”

“Of course, Dean. I’ll have everything taken care of for the case. You and Sam just worry about getting out successfully.” Castiel smiles and says goodbye before hanging up the phone and leaving, not giving Dean a change to say his farewell. Dean just stares at him while he leaves, walking with purpose and determination. When he catches himself smiling at the sight of him, a part of him secretly admits that maybe, just  _ maybe  _ Sam has a point about the crush thing.

A few hours later they get a letter from Cas saying it’s done and they escape successfully. They have to go way off the grid this time, though, because the FBI will be looking extra hard for them after this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dean silently admitting is crush on Cas gives me life. Not that he would probably do anything about it any time soon.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Castiel's POV  
> It's Djinn time.

Castiel is… confused to say the least. He wakes up in a room he doesn’t recognize on a bed he doesn’t own wearing pajamas which aren’t the ones Gabriel provided for him. He feels something - or rather _someone_ \- shift on the bed beside him and when he looks to see who it is, he is shocked to see it’s none other than Dean. Castiel leans in slightly closer and notices Dean looks older than the Dean he’s been with recently. He looks like the Dean he’s left behind.

Castiel’s heart starts to beat fast, trying to think of how he got to be in the same bed as the Old Dean. At first, he feels a bit shy, but extremely happy, as well, to be sharing such intimate space with Dean. However, after thinking back, he remembers hunting a D'jinn by himself, insisting both Sam and Dean lay low so they don’t get caught by the cops somehow. They were on their way back to Bobby’s to summon Azazel, but when passing through town, they caught wind of a supernatural-like situation.

Castiel feels ashamed for overestimating himself. Of course he wasn’t able to handle a simple hunt now that he is human. After all, without his powers he’s just ‘a baby in a trenchcoat.’

‘Dean’ shifts again beside him and slowly wakes up. “Cas?” When he sees him sitting up, ‘Dean’ sits up as well, a look of concern in his eyes. “Hey, what’s up?” ‘Dean’ rests a hand on the small of Castiel’s back, making his heart beat even harder. Castiel didn’t realize how much he wanted this until now. It must be because as an angel his emotions were dampened. However, he has recently noticed the increase in his pulse when Dean stands near him or smiles at him or touches him - albeit in a normal friendly way - or when Dean does many other _Dean_ things. Castiel always knew he… _liked_ Dean in a different way than he liked Sam or Bobby, but he assumed it was because he and Dean went through more together.

“I know you aren’t real,” Castiel says. He turns his head to look ‘Dean’ in the eye.

“Cas, what are you talking about? Of course I’m real,” he replies.

“No, this is just a D'jinn trick. It’s not really you; I left you to go back in time to fix things, so it _can’t_ be _you_.”

“Cas, you never went back in time,” ‘Dean’ says slowly. “I stopped you, remember? You came to visit me in my dream and after you said goodbye, I stopped you.” ‘Dean’ scoots closer and puts a hand on Castiel’s cheek. Castiel can’t help himself as he leans into his hand. “I couldn’t stand the thought of you leaving. That’s when I told you how I feel about you, how I love you and that was the reason I was so upset you went to Crowley for help and not me. After that you agreed to stop your Purgatory plan with Crowley and agreed to let us help you instead.”

“If that’s so, how did I stop Raphael?”

“ _We_ stopped him by convincing Death to give us this recipe for some angel bomb.” Dean looks at Castiel sadly now. “One of the ingredients was your grace. That’s why you’re human.”

Part of Castiel is telling him that this makes sense, but a bigger part of him disagrees. “That isn’t how it happened. I _did_ go back in time. I remember _you_ trying to stop me, but I still went. I’m human because I chose to be. I fell for you,” Castiel says. “We - you, Sam, and I - were on our way back to Bobby’s to summon Azazel and kill him before he can take Sam. But I was caught by the D'jinn because I’m not a good hunter as a human.” Castiel looks down, feeling sorry for himself again.

“Hey.” Dean hooks a finger under Castiel’s chin to get him to look at him. When Castiel doesn’t meet his eyes, Dean dips his head down to catch his gaze. “Don’t say that, Cas.”

“If I were an angel still I wouldn’t have been caught by the D'jinn.”

“Cas, you _are_ a good hunter. You know how to fight, you’ve been fighting for, what? A couple millenia? More? You just need to get used to not having your grace give you that extra strength and speed, ya know?” Castiel stays silent. “Hey, tomorrow we can train if you want. That way you can practice.” Dean gives Castiel a small, short kiss on his cheek. Castiel feels as if his heart will explode from how intimate the gesture is. “That way, when you go back - if you want to - you’ll have a better grasp at fighting and hunting.”

“So you admit to not being real?” Castiel says in a sort of daze.

“Sure,” he replies, shrugging one shoulder, “only because I’m sure you’re not going to want to leave. You want to be able to prove yourself to your Dean. And you would be doing the opposite if you, supposed hunter, can’t hold out in a hunt.” Castiel slightly winces at this. Dean gives him a small kiss. Castiel instinctively leans into it, making Dean chuckle. “I also don’t think you’re going to be too keen on leaving this.”

“You’re not the real Dean,” Castiel says this mostly to himself.

“We can pretend.” He’s right, of course. How easy it would be to just live his life here with this Dean. He knows he shouldn’t, especially since he still has to help the real Sam and Dean summon and kill Azazel, but a part of him - a large part - wants to. “For now, though, let’s get some shuteye. We’ll train after we get our eight hours.” Dean lies down, facing away from Castiel. Castiel lies on his back facing the ceiling. After a few seconds, Dean reaches for Castiel’s arm on the far side of him and wraps it around his waist, making Castiel curl up behind Dean, holding him. Castiel’s breath stutters a bit, but he soon finds himself comfortably lulling off to sleep.

He wakes feeling more rested than he has since becoming human. Sometime during the night their positions switched; Castiel was now being held by Dean. It makes him feel safe. Castiel would have stayed longer in Dean’s arms, but soon he felt the need to urinate. Sighing, Castiel got out of the bed to head to the bathroom. It took a minute to find as there seems to be an endless amount of rooms wherever they are, but he found it nonetheless. After he flushes, washes his hands, and brushes his teeth, he hears noises coming from what he assumes is the kitchen, judging by the sound of cabinets opening and closing.

Castiel follows the sounds, which do lead him to the kitchen. He sees Dean in just his boxers and a Led Zeppelin t-shirt now standing over the stove humming some song Castiel presumes is classic rock.

Sensing his presence, Dean turns his head to look at him with a bright smile. Castiel’s legs feel weak at the sight of it. “‘Morning, Cas! Sleep well?”

“As a matter of fact, yes, I slept better than I have since becoming human,” Castiel answers honestly.

“Glad to hear it. I hope you like eggs and bacon since that’s what I’m making.” Dean turns to resume his cooking.

“Do we still hunt? In this world, that is,” Castiel questions.

“Sure we do. It’s not constant, on the road hunting like before, but yeah, we still hunt.”

“And Sam?”

Castiel sees Dean smile. “Oh, Sammy went back to finish up college. If some monster is near him, he takes care of it, otherwise he is basically out for now.”

"Where are we?" Castiel questions. "This is much too large to be a house, let alone the fact it looks nothing like any house I've seen or the fact it seems to have no windows," he notes, looking around the room.

"Ah, right. Yeah, this isn't a house. This, my friend," Dean says as he places bacon on a hot pan, "is the Men of Letters bunker - or as I like to call it: the Batcave. Turns out me and Sam are legacies." Dean grins at this. "Dude, this place if full of awesome things. Lore, weapons, spell ingredients. You name it, it's probably here." Castiel can practically feel his excitement rolling off of him in waves. “There’s even a dungeon!”

As Dean cooks and while they eat, Castiel asks questions about them, Sam, Bobby, Heaven, and the Men of Letters.

 

Castiel is out of breath and sweating profusely. He and Dean have been training for just about an hour. Castiel, being a quick learner, catches on quickly and is soon able to take down Dean.

“Alright,” Dean says, equally out of breath, “that’s enough for today, I think.” He grabs himself a small towel and hands one to Castiel. “Tomorrow we can do gun training. You won’t be able to rely on your angel blade for every fight, no matter how useful it is.”

Over the next few days, Dean trained Castiel more in fighting, especially with guns since he needed more training in that. He was even taught the basics of first aid. During his time here, Castiel got more comfortable with Dean This made him want to leave less and less, but finally one day, about a week later in this world, Castiel tells Dean he has to go.

“I have to help them kill Azazel, otherwise my going back in time would be all for naught,” Castiel explains.

“But you’re _h_ _appy_ here, Cas,” Dean counters.

“That doesn’t matter,” Castiel tells him. “I have a mission to stop Azazel.”

“A _mission?_ ” Dean scoffs with a pulled face. “Cas, you don’t _have_ missions anymore. Missions are given to people following orders and last I knew, you don’t work for Heaven anymore.” Castiel flinches a little at that. Upon seeing this, Dean’s face softens and he grabs his hands. "You deserve to be happy for once, Cas. Just think about this for a second, _please._ ”

“There is nothing to think about, Dean. I have to do this, they need my help.”

“ _He_ won’t ever love you like _I_ love you, Cas,” Dean says with tears in his eyes. Castiel’s heart breaks a little at the sight. He never enjoys seeing Dean, a man who always does his best to hide ‘weak’ emotions, cry. “Please don’t ruin this. Don’t ruin us and your happiness.” Dean gets closer to Castiel, puts his hands on his face, and pulls him into a kiss. For a moment all thoughts Castiel had of leaving this dream world leave him as he feels Dean’s lips on his. He wants to stay here with Dean _so badly,_  but he can't. The _real_ Dean needs him.

Castiel steps away from Dean and takes a shaky breath. “I’m sorry, but I have to do this.” Castiel picks up his angel blade from the table and stabs himself in the chest.

“Cas!” Dean yells.

When Castiel opens his eyes he sees nothing but blurriness. It’s extremely dark here, a striking contrast to the well lit Men of Letters bunker he was just in. Castiel feels weak, barely noticing the pain he feels.

“Cas, hey, come on,” Castiel hears Dean say. At first he isn’t sure if it is just in his mind, an after effect from his dream, but when he feels Dean’s hands on him he knows it’s real. “Wake _up,_ damn it.”

“You found him?” He hears Sam, now. He seems to be farther away.

“Yeah. I’ll get him down, you deal with the D'jinn,” Dean tells him. Dean’s hands are first by his neck to pull out the needle and then by his hands, trying to get him down.

“Dean?” Castiel tries to say, except it come out more like a groan.

“Cas? Oh, thank God you’re not dead.” When Dean gets his hands unbound, he slowly lowers him to the ground, resting his head on his lap. “I thought I lost you.”

“Almost,” Castiel says choppily. “Didn’t want to come back. Was happy.”

“What made you decide to get out?” Dean asks.

“Need to keep you safe. Need to save you before it’s too late.” Castiel feels incredibly tired all of a sudden and lets himself fall asleep, even though he hears Dean pleading with him to stay awake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a while! For one, I've been super busy with end of the semester stuff. It's also been very nice out lately (not that I've been necessarily outside the whole time, but i sit here thinking I should be outside). Anyway, the biggest reason was because I wasn't sure how to go about this chapter, you know?


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dean's POV  
> Things get a little crazy

Dean is begging Cas to keep his eyes open, to stay awake, but it’s in vain. He sighs and checks Cas’ pulse. It’s still there, thankfully.

Dean sits there, Cas’ head on his lap, and tries to process what Cas just told him.

 _“Need to keep you safe. Need to save you before it’s too late.”_ Keep him safe from what? _Save_ him from what? He wonders if he should tell Sam about this. His brother already doesn’t seem to trust Cas too well, would this help him trust him or not? On the one hand it might because Cas seems to want to help Dean. On the other hand, it may just further Sam’s whole ‘He’s not who he seems’ thing. Which, Dean admits, he has a point. Dean recalls to when Cas first woke up at Bobby’s, how he seemed to know Dean. He claimed it was from the wanted posters, but Dean remembers how he didn’t seem all that confident in his answer. Did he really somehow _know_ Dean? He somehow knew from the start exactly what he and Sam both like to eat. And he just happens to know the name of the demon they've been hunting their whole lives. Not only that, but it was weird how Cas seemed to be totally fine the day after they found him, despite how bloody he was when they found him. Still, despite this, Dean trusts him. It’s _Cas_ . There’s no way he’s some bad guy. And that is not because of his maybe possible crush on the guy. There's just _something_ about him. It’s almost as if Dean _knows_ him.

No, he won’t tell Sam, he decides. At least not yet. He knows not telling his brother will probably blow up in his face later, but he will cross that bridge when he gets there.

In the meantime, Sam comes out carrying a girl who looks like she is on the brink of death. “Dean, she’s still alive, but just barely. We need to get her to a hospital _now._ ” Sam rushes outside to the car while Dean gets up and lifts Cas up by the shoulders. Cas groans.

“Hey, buddy, you need to help me out here,” Dean encourages. “We need to get to the car, alright? Can you handle that?” Cas gives him a tired side-eyed glance.

“‘M not a ‘baby in a trenchcoat.’” Cas does the finger quotes again which would have made Dean laugh if not for their current situation.

“Right,” Dean says simply as they make their way to the car. When Dean gets him in the backseat, Cas doesn’t fall asleep. In fact, it seems like he is forcing himself to stay up to prove some sort of point.

After dropping the girl off at the hospital they go back to the motel. Upon getting there, they help Cas out of the car and help him inside, each brother wrapping one of Cas’ arms around their shoulders. When they get inside, they put him on a bed and Sam goes to the fridge to get something for Cas to eat. When Dean sits beside him, Cas seems to shuffle just a little bit away from Dean. Dean, for his part, pretends he doesn’t notice that nor the small ache in his chest from this.

After heating up a leftover burger, Sam hands it to him. “Here, eat this. You need to get something in you.” Cas takes it from Sam gratefully and takes a bite. Cas groans in delight from the food, making Dean shift a little on his spot beside him.

“Thank you, Sam.” None of them speak while Cas eats.

When Cas finishes, which doesn’t take too long, Sam asks, “If you don’t mind me asking, what did you dream about?”

Cas glances at Dean, but quickly shifts his gaze to his hands. “It was… an alternate solution to the decision I made to rectify my mistake.” Cas smiles sadly. “Now I wonder if things would have turned out like that if I hadn’t taken this course of action.”

“It wasn’t real, you know,” Sam offers.

Cas looks at him. “Of course I know, I knew the whole time, but I was _happy_ there. Happier than I’ve been in a long time, I think. Happier than I've ever been, perhaps. I had things I didn’t realize I wanted so much.” Cas pauses and then takes a deep breath. “I know it wasn’t real,” he repeats, “but what happened possibly could have happened, and now I’ll never know because there is no going back.”

“Then what made you decide to not stay?” Sam asks the same question Dean had earlier. “If you were so happy there, what pushed you out of the dream?”

Cas looks at Dean for a moment, Dean meeting his eyes. After a moment Cas looks back to Sam. “I need to stop the yellow eyed demon.” Dean is a bit confused. Is Yellow Eyes what Cas is trying to ‘save’ him from? The demon wants Sam, not him.

Sam opens his mouth to say something, but Cas’ phone rings. Dean takes a peak at the caller ID and sees the name Chuck Shurley. Cas seems to tense up upon seeing the name. He gets up and answers the phone, facing away from the brothers.

“Chuck,” he answers. Whatever ‘Chuck’ says makes Cas tense up even more, taking a glance back to where Dean and Sam are sitting with wide eyes filled with what looks like fear. Dean looks to Sam and sees he is also confused and curious. “Alright, thank you for telling me. We’ll leave right away.” Cas pauses. “No. You _know_ we can’t let Gabriel help.” Pause. “Because it’s too dangerous, that’s why! For him and for me.” Pause. Eye roll. “Yes, of course I have it with me.” Pause. “Alright. Goodbye.” Cas hangs up and turns to face the boys. “We need to leave. Now.” Cas starts getting their stuff together.

“What’s going on, Cas?” Dean asks, on red alert.

“My… psychic contact told me he is coming sometime within the next few days. Could be tonight, could be this weekend. We need to get to Bobby’s _now._ ”

“Who’s coming?” Sam asks.

Cas dramatically rolls his eyes and turns to look exasperatedly at Sam. “Who do you think, Sam? The yellowed eyed demon. He is coming to take you away like he did with the others.” Dean blinks at him silently. They never told him the demon wanted Sam. Cas turns back to finish packing up. “We need to drive to Bobby’s fast. No stops on the way.” Dean and Sam jump to action, helping Cas pack. In no time they are outside and on the road.

While Dean is driving, he looks in the rear-view mirror to see Cas painting on the interior of his car. “Hey! Come on, man, what’re you doing to my car?”

“I get you value your car, Dean, and you don’t seem to always value your life, but at this moment _please_ value your life just as much as you value your brother’s and your car's,” Cas snaps. “I’m just warding the car from being detected by demons.” Dean pouts but doesn’t say anything. Sam snickers from beside him which earns him a smack in the chest from Dean.

They reach Bobby’s in record time. The three of them rush into the house.

“Bobby, do you have everything ready?” Cas asks just as they get into the house.

“What’s going on? What’s with the rush all of a sudden?” Bobby asks jumping out of his seat.

“Cas’ psychic friend told him Yellow Eyes is coming tonight for Sam. We need to summon him.”

They do the ritual. The yellow eyed demon, Azazel apparently, appears in the devil’s trap.

“Sammy, I’ve been looking all over for you,” Yellow Eyes says. “Thank you for saving me the trouble of finding you.” When he looks down and sees the demon trap he says with a sigh, “I don’t know why you boys are bothering with this, it’s not like you can kill me without the…” He trails off when he sees Cas. “You. How did you get that?” Dean follows his gaze to Cas’ blade.

“Your plan is over, Azazel,” Cas says, ignoring the demon’s question. The demon walks as close to Cas as he could while in the devil’s trap.

“There is something almost… angelic about you.” Azazel sniffs the air around Cas. “But it’s faded.” He smirks evilly. Dean takes a protective step closer to Cas. “Ah, a fallen. I know what you’re trying to do, but it won’t work. You must’ve heard about your family’s plans and wanted to 'fix' things, but you can’t change them, you know. It’s just the way things are. You know, destiny and all that,” he states with a wave of his hand. “I'm sure you know all about the concept? Sam will be taken or, at the very least, Dean will,” Yellow Eyes glances at him, “well, you know.” Dean notice Cas’ face shift from an impassive, stern look to one of pure wrath. The intensity of it makes even Dean take a step back.

“No.” It’s all Cas says, but it seems to convey a lot.

“If it’s not because of Sam, it’ll be for something else.” Dean is getting uncomfortable with how they seem to know things about them which they themselves don’t know. “Maybe there’s another…” the demon looks Cas up and down. “ _Thing_ Dean cares about.” He laughs and faces Dean. “Oh, if only daddy could see you now, boy.” Dean feels his stomach drop at the thought. If his dad knew about his maybe possible _feelings_ for Cas… Well, let’s just say this is the first time Dean is glad his father isn’t around.

“You know how I know things won’t be the same?” Cas tosses the blade to Sam. Castiel walks closer to him inside the demon trap. “I know because I will do _everything_ in my power to make sure it doesn’t happen.”

"You can't change destiny, angel boy," Azazel says as Sam stabs Azazel in the chest causing the demon to flash. Sam pulls the blade out and Azazel falls dead.

They all stand around for a few endless seconds before Dean finally asks, “What the _hell_ just happened?”

Cas turns to him, all of the wrath which was there only a moment ago completely gone and replaced with an eye squint and a confused head tilt. At any other time Dean probably would have found this endearing, but now it's just setting him on edge. “We just killed Azazel, Dean. I’m not sure what you’re not getting.”

Dean all of a sudden feels a flare of irritation. There is clearly something much bigger going on which Cas seems to know a lot about, something that deals with him and Sam directly, yet Cas has never said anything about it the whole time he's been with them. Dean has already been suspecting as much from what Cas said after they saved him from the D'jinn, but whatever it is, it is much bigger than Dean ever could have imagined.

Dean points a finger at the now dead demon and says, “What was he - the two of you - talking about, Cas?” Out of the corner of his eye, Dean sees Bobby and Sam give each other a look. “What?” Dean snaps.

“It’s just… Dean, I told you there was something off about him, and while it does seem like Castiel is helping us, he knows more than he’s told us. He’s been hiding something big, something important. Bobby and I have suspected as much, but you wouldn’t listen any time I brought it up to you,” Sam tells him. “I mean, he knew the demon’s name and he apparently knows his plans? What if he was working with him or something?”

Looking back at Cas, Dean sees him looking utterly hurt and while the sight of it hurts something in Dean as well, he makes sure he doesn’t show it. “No, this… this can’t be happening _again._ ” Cas looks frantically between the three of them. “I helped you with _you,_ not with… This isn’t supposed to happen. I-I was supposed to make things _right_.”

“Cas!” Dean snaps loudly to snap him out of his ramblings. “Tell us what is going on. Now!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, that escalated quickly. Still not 100% sure what's going to happen next, I have too many ideas at the moment.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ayo, what up, it's ya boye, uhhh, worst updater in the world. I'll explain everything in the end notes section thing. For now...
> 
> Cas POV

Castiel is sort of panicking. How did this happen _again_? He did everything right this time; he helped save the brothers and he didn’t work with a demon (despite what Sam, Dean, and Bobby seem to think). It takes a while before Castiel is calmed down.

Dean sits down beside him (when did he sit on the couch?), Dean says, “Uh, hey, Cas, you good?” Dean seems hesitant, of course, since he thinks Castiel is working with demons. Castiel only shrugs, not trusting his voice to enough to speak. Dean sighs. “Look, I’m sorry about blowing up there, but can you blame me? I mean, I was vouching for you the whole time, you know? Sam kept telling me that some of the things you said just didn’t make sense, but it’s _you_ , and for some reason I just trusted you even though I hardly know you. But then he and Bobby turn out to be right because there is obviously something huge going on that you aren’t telling us and it involves me and Sam.”

“I can’t, Dean. You won’t believe me,” Castiel tells him helplessly. “Besides, I don’t even know where to start.”

From across the room, Sam suggests, “How about we just ask you questions and you answer the best you can?” Castiel nods in agreement.

“Alright, well first and foremost, I want to know what you are trying to save me from. You said something about saving me after you woke up from the D’jinn dream and then just now you and Azazel were saying something about me. So what is that all about?” Dean questions.

Castiel takes a deep breath. “Sam was to be taken by Azazel and he would’ve gone to this abandoned town with the other ‘special’ kids. The ones with the, um…” Castiel looks at Sam and then to Bobby and finally to Dean and decides to leave the demon blood part out. He doesn’t want to burden them with this knowledge. “With the special gifts. They were to battle there and kill each other. Azazel would make the ‘winner’ the leader of his demon army.”

“Okay,” Dean draws out, “we’ll get back to _how_ you know this, but for now, what does this have to do with me?”

“Sam dies there.” Castiel hears the three of them take a sharp breath. “Dean, you would sell your soul so bring him back and you would go to Hell a year afterwards.”

“Wait, a year? Ain't people supposed to get ten years for a deal?” Bobby interrupts.

“Dean’s would be a… special case.”

“Alright, this seems like a whole nother issue, so for now how do you know all of this?”

Castiel looks at Dean helplessly. “You won’t believe me, Dean.”

“Try me.”

“I’m not sure if it is safe for you to know,” Castiel tries instead. He is trying to avoid answering this, knowing that if they find out he was lying about being human before (even though he is a human now) they would probably be less likely to forgive and trust him. “Some knowledge can be dangerous.” Dean just stares at Castiel and he just knows Dean won’t be giving up on this, so Castiel sighs and slumps his shoulders. “I’m assuming you won’t believe me if I said my psychic contact told me?” Dean just shakes his head. “While it is true Chuck - the psychic - told me some of this information since I didn’t know it all, the main reason I know all of this is because I… lived through it already.” Silence. “Please say something.”

“You expect us to believe you, what, got a phone booth to go back in time to save me?” Dean asks plainly. Sam huffs out a small laugh.

“I, uh, no. Phone booths can’t go through time, Dean,” Castiel tells him confusedly.

“Nothing can go back through time, Cas, that’s my point!”

“Angels can,” Castiel says quietly. Dean scoffs and stands up. Sam stands up straighter.

“You’re an angel?” Sam asks with hope. Before Castiel can reply, Dean cuts in.

“You know, I wanted to give you a chance to prove you’re a good guy because I trusted you. I vouched for you against Sam - my own _brother_ \- this whole time, but since you’re obviously not going to cooperate-” Castiel stands up and grabs Dean’s shoulder.

“Dean, I am telling you the truth.”

“What, that you’re an angel?” Dean laughs humorlessly and shakes off Castiel’s hand. “Maybe you can fool Sam, but you ain't fooling me. I don’t believe in angels.”

“I know and that’s why I didn’t tell you before.” Dean looks into Castiel’s eyes.

“You’re being serious.” Castiel nods once. “Prove it then.”

Castiel pulls the vial of grace out from where it is fashioned as a necklace around his neck. Chuck told him he was able to save it after Castiel passed out and he gave it to him just in case he ever needed it. Dean takes the grace from his hand as Sam and Bobby move in closer to get a better look. The three of them look at it in awe. “That is my grace. I’m technically human now. I fell a little after the case with Ga - uh, the Trickster, with the intentions of saving you and Sam,” Castiel informs. “That’s why you didn’t hear from me for a few weeks; I was unconscious.” He gently takes the glowing vial back from Dean’s hands and gazes softly at it. “I chose to fall because I didn’t think you would trust me if you knew I wasn’t human and I just… I couldn’t go through you not trusting me again, Dean. That’s why I’m here.”

“Wait, so if I died and went to Hell, how did you know me?”

“I’m the one who gripped you tight and raised you from Perdition.”

“Why? What have I ever done to be chosen to be saved?” Castiel’s heart breaks a little hearing this. Even before he went to Hell, before he carved up that first soul, Dean doesn’t believe he is worth saving.

“You’re the Righteous Man. It was a part of God’s plan for you to be saved. Your destiny.” Castiel laughs humorlessly. “I always thought I saved you too late, that it was my fault for getting to you too late. It was their plan, though. They didn’t tell my garrison and I until they knew we would be too late.”

“Too late?” Sam questions.

“They needed a Righteous Man - a man who did not go to Hell out of evil doings, who chose to go there by saving another - to shed blood in Hell. To break the first seal. To start up the Apocalypse.” There is a tense moment of silence before Castiel clears his throat and continues. “I was too late. Not only were you down there for forty years in Hell time, the first seal broke and the beginning of the end started. Long story short, we were able to avert the Apocalypse, but the archangel Raphael wanted to start it back up again -"

"The angels _wanted_ the Apocalypse to happen?" Dean questions with shock. "I thought angels were supposed to be guardians - fluffy wings, halos..."

"Read the Bible," Castiel says, echoing his words from another time. "Angels are warriors of God, we are soldiers, not 'guardians with fluffy wings and halos.' Raphael wanted the Apocalypse to happen, though, because it was written, meant to be. Destiny. He was also certain if the end of times came to pass, our Father would return.”

“God’s gone?” Sam questions. Castiel notices a sad tone in his voice.

“God has been gone for a long time.” Castiel smiles mirthlessly. “I prayed to him and searched for him,” Castiel takes a glance at the amulet hanging from Dean’s neck, “but he didn’t want to be found. So after we managed to stop Michael and Lucifer, there was a civil war in Heaven between Raphael and his soldiers who wanted the end of times and me and my soldiers who wanted to keep the Apocalypse from happening. I didn’t want to put you in danger by asking you for help, so when Crowley, the King of Hell, offered to help…”

“So you worked with the King of Hell instead?” Unsurprisingly, Castiel could tell Dean is clearly upset.

“Yes, I believed I was doing the right thing, but when you, Sam, and Bobby found out, you weren’t happy.” Castiel ignores Dean’s _‘Obviously.’_ “I wasn’t able to handle you being so… _disappointed_ in me, and since it was too late to back out of my plan, I decided to just go back in time to fix it. To fix everything.”

“Hold up, so if the problem happened after the whole Apocalypse thing,” Dean starts, waving a hand around, “why come back to… how long ago is this for you?”

“Well, it was a little over a year since the start of the civil war. Just about three years since I pulled you out of Hell.” It feels simultaneously longer and shorter than three years since he first laid eyes on Dean’s endlessly bright soul in Hell. “So that makes this about four years in my past. To answer your question, though, I wanted to save you from having to go to Hell at all, Dean. To save you from having to know the death of your brother. And from all of the horrible things the world has done to you during those years.”

Dean stares at Castiel with his mouth slightly agape. “Why would you do all of that for me?”

Castiel doesn’t know how to respond to his question. There are so many reason why he would do this. To stop the Apocalypse from even beginning and therefore saving many, many lives, sure. But to do this for _him_ , for Dean himself, well, it’s fairly simple yet very complicated. Castiel _needs_ Dean in his life. Dean, who's soul is the brightest Castiel has ever seen, despite how much suffering he has been through both on Earth and in Hell. Dean is the one who helped him realize how important freewill is, how beautiful a caring family is, how _intoxicating_ love is. He would do anything for Dean. He would - _has_ died for Dean, and he would do it all over again if it means Dean gets to keep on living. Castiel now knows what Gabriel meant when he said Castiel has fallen in every way.

Castiel can’t say all this to Dean, though. He isn’t sure Dean would take it too well. Instead, Castiel gently places his grace safely back around his neck and smiles at Dean. “Because, Dean Winchester, you deserve to be saved.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so, I was gone for, like, eight months. At first I couldn't update because of end of semester stuff. I had a ton of projects to get done. But then I also got into some p deep depression and was basically a borderline alcoholic for a while. Anyway, it took me forever to get my interest back in anything, including Supernatural and writing. It's been a tough ride these past few months, but I'm so glad y'all are still interested in this story!  
> This chapter took a bit for me to work out. At first I wrote out about 1,000 of basically end of season 2 - end of season 6 of just like dialogue plot explanation by Cas to everybody, but it was so boring. So I did it like this instead with an identity reveal type thing.  
> I do want to let you know, I did go back into the old chapters to fix some errors and to add a few extra details (i.e. instead of a house in the d'jinn dream, I changed it to be the MoL Bunker. Maybe I'll have the actual bunker in this fic for them, maybe I won't. I have literally no idea. it's a nice thought, but i'm not sure how i can make it work). I didn't change anything to drastically make a difference at all.  
> Anyway, I haven't started the next chapter yet, and honestly I'm not sure when i'll get to it, but I do have ideas of where this will be going. Just because Azazel is dead doesn't mean they are completely safe now. Remember, the angels are terrible people and want the apocalypse.  
> Anywho, thank you for sticking with me these long months! I hope it's been worth it!
> 
> (Also, god DANG I seem to always forget Bobby is in the room whenever he is there??? like he is briefly mentioned but he never says or does anything lmao. hopefully ill get better with that)


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoa what's this? ya boye back at it again in less than two weeks?!
> 
> Dean's POV

Dean isn’t sure what to do. All of his instincts are telling him to call bullshit on Cas’ story because, _really? Angels?_ He isn’t sure which is worse: angels being real or not. If what Cas said was true, that he is - or rather _was_ \- an angel (and it’s hard to deny after literally holding his angelic grace in his hands), then that means angels have always been there and just let everything on Earth go to shit. If angels are real then God, capital G, is probably real, too. Where has He been this whole time? Why, if Dean was going off of Cas’ story, did he just let the Apocalypse start up?

Dean doesn't say anything, though. He isn't sure what it is about the guy, but Dean can tell he is being honest. A large part of Dean is telling him he can and should listen to Cas. The dude did just save them from a seemingly terrible fate. Dean just isn't sure if this is from genuinely thinking he can trust him or if it's from the _feelings_ he has for the guy.

 _‘Oh, if only daddy could see you now, boy.’_ The demon's words ring in his ears. Before it was only the fact Cas was a guy, but if his dad found out the guy was also a supernatural being? Yeah, Dean is sure either one or both of them would be dead. _Maybe_ his dad would have been able to get over Dean being with a guy, but he would never get over the fact Cas isn’t human.

Everything - the angels, God, Heaven stuff, Cas’ (albeit good intentioned) deception, killing Yellow Eyes, and everything Cas told them - is starting to weigh on Dean. He needs to get out of here, to get space from everything.

Dean turns away from everyone and heads out the door, ignoring both Sam and Cas calling his name. He head feels fuzzy as he stumbles outside and makes his way to Baby. He gets in and as soon as he starts the ignition, Dean peels out of the driveway and onto the road.

For a while Dean is able to avoid thinking about anything and just drive, but soon enough his mind starts to drift back to all Cas told them. If it weren’t for Cas helping them out, Sam would have died and Dean would have sold his soul, securing his place in Hell. Dean feels nauseous thinking about how he would have broken the first seal leading to the Apocalypse. He would have tortured some poor soul. Cas didn’t say it outright, but he knows that’s what he meant when he said Dean ‘shed blood in Hell.’

But still, for some reason Cas thinks he is worth saving, worth going against Heaven, worth losing angelic powers for. Dean has no idea how the guy has so much faith in him. What does he see in Dean that is worth it all?

If he believes in him so much, why did Cas decide to work with a demon - the King of Hell, no less - instead of coming to him in his time? Cas said it was to keep them out of danger, but did he not trust Dean to even help out? How could he trust a demon more than him?

Dean shakes his head to get out of that train of thought. Cas came back in time to fix it. In fact, he came back farther than he needed to just to try to give Dean and Sam a better life. Dean gives a small smile. Cas must care about them a lot. He is one of the good guys, just as Dean had thought since first speaking to him.

Feeling significantly better, Dean decides to drive back to Bobby’s.

When he pulls into the driveway, Dean sees Cas sitting on the the steps outside, head in his hands. His head snaps up once he hears the Impala. Dean takes a deep breath and shuts of the car as Cas makes his way to him.

“Hey,” Dean simply says as he gets out of the car.

“Dean,” Cas says in a relieved voice. “I'm sorry for not telling you earlier -”

Dean puts a hand up to stop him. “Cas, it's fine. I understand, I do.” He shrugs. “You're right, we probably wouldn't have trusted you so quickly if you told us right away, but I feel like you've proven yourself enough. Besides, I'm sure you wouldn't let just anyone hold your bottle of angelic powers,” Dean says with a wink.

Cas’ eyes widen. “Of course not! You can't imagine the sort of catastrophe that could happen if the wrong person or being gets a hold of power like this!” Dean smiles softly at the fact Cas trusts him so much as to let him hold his grace.

“You said you, uh, became human for us, but you didn't do it until after the Trickster.” Cas nods. “Cas, we had no idea before then, so why even do it?”

Cas looks down at his feet with a pinched look. “When Chuck suggested I just summon Azazel, I knew he would be able to sense I was an angel and I would lose your trust. Chuck said that maybe if I wasn't an angel anymore…”

“Then he wouldn't be able to sense you,” Dean finishes.

“But it didn't matter.”

“You really went to some lengths to keep a secret from us, huh?” Dean doesn't say this in a mean way; he says it in the same he would say that the sky is blue. Just stating an obvious fact.

“I did it to -”

“To keep our trust, yeah,” Dean finishes with the wave of his hand. “Just, no more secrets, capisce?”

“Yeah, I capisce.” Dean grins widely and slings and arm around Cas, leading then back to the house. Dean does his best to ignore how his whole body seems to electrify.

“Come on, let’s go clean up the mess that is the dead body of Yellow Eyes,” Dean says as he opens the door. The first thing he noticed is Yellow Eyes’ body has already been taken care of. The next thing he notices is Sam talking frantically to someone in the living room. Dean draws a confused face, drops his arm from Cas’ shoulder, and heads to the living room to see Sam speaking to someone on the phone.

“We’ll head there right away, don’t worry. Try to find anyone else who survived and stick together, alright? We’ll get there in a few hours max.” Sam pauses for the other person to respond. “Hold tight, Ava.” He hangs up.

“Hold up, Ava? Ava Wilson?” Dean asks. “The girl who had those freaky visions like you? She’s been missing for, like, five months, dude.”

“I know. She just called and said she woke up in a shed in some place called Cold Oak. Apparently it’s a ghost town not too far from here,” Sam informs. “I told her we’ll go help her and the others that are there.” Sam smiles a little, probably relieved she’s safe. He’s been worried about Ava since she went missing.

“You’ll do nothing of the sort,” Cas speaks up, standing tall and face deadly serious.

“Cas, we can’t just leave them there,” Sam pleads. Dean nods in agreement with his brother.

“Did it ever occur to you that this is a trap?” Sam opens his mouth to respond, but Cas continues. “Sam, this is where Azazel was going to bring you. You don’t think it’s strange you’re missing friend, after apparently five months of nothing, calls you just hours after you were supposed to show up? Hours after Azazel’s death?” Both Dean and Sam fall silent to that. Cas has a point, Dean admits, but…

“Look, Cas, maybe it’s a trap, but maybe it’s not. We have to at least _try_ to help.”

“At the risk of your brother’s life? At the risk of starting the Apocalypse?” Cas snaps. Dean closes his mouth with a _snap_. Of course he doesn’t want to risk Sammy’s life. He spent his whole goddamn life trying to protect the kid.

“My life isn’t worth the life of multiple people,” Sam says quietly.

"What about the thousand,  _millions_ of people that could die if the Apocalypse comes to be?" Cas asks seriously.

"Cas, Azazel is dead and with your experience I'm sure we can make it through." Sam pauses a moment. "If worst comes to worst, Dean just... won't make a demon deal." 

“Sam…”

“No, Dean. We can’t just leave them there. I promised Ava we’ll go and help so we will.” Dean can see the determination coursing all throughout his body. He knows there is no way Dean or Cas would be able to talk him out of this, Apocalypse be damned. “We will just stay on high alert the whole time.”

Dean looks over at Cas with a shrug. “We can just keep a good eye on him. There’s no way we are going to be able to talk Sam out of this,” Dean says at Cas’ glare. “Even if we leave without him, he will find a way there. He’ll sneak out if he has to and I would rather be there with him.” Dean sees a muscle in Cas’ jaw twitch as he clenches it in frustration. “Couldn’t you just, I dunno, angel back up an smite anyone who tries to kill him?” Dean says with a wave of his hands.

“No, I can’t just ‘angel back up,’ as you call it.” The way his voice sounds lets Dean know he must be trying very hard to keep in anger. “It would be a huge energy flare to Heaven. They would be here for me in a second.”

“What would they do if they find you,” Sam asks curiously.

“Typically, a fallen angel is to be executed. To fall is one of the worst things an angel can do,” Cas informs them. Dean stares at him in disbelief and feels slightly guilty because Cas fell for h _im_. And Sam and Bobby, of course. It’s because of them Cas will have to face an angel executioner if he is ever found. “In my case, however, if they find out I’m from the future trying to stop the Apocalypse, they would probably find a way to extract the information from me so they know what and what not to do.”

There is a second of heavy silence before Dean says, “Alright, so you don’t get your angel mojo. Are you able to fight without it?” The sharp glare Cas sends Dean’s way makes him blink in surprise.

“I have been a warrior for longer than the Earth has been around, Dean,” he growls. “I may have less strength and speed than I do with my powers and I may not be proficient with guns, but that does _not_ make me unable to fight, do you understand, _boy?_ ” Dean has to take a step back, breath caught in his throat, from the sheer ferocity that comes off his friend. Dean glances Sam to see the same wide eyed look he’s sure he has on his own face.

“Yeah, jeez, alright. Calm down. Didn’t mean to offend you or anything,” Dean says with his hands slightly raised in a calming manner.

Sam clears his throat. “So, uh, shall we get going then?”

Cas’ shoulders drop in defeat. It is a huge contrast to how he looked just seconds ago. “I have to make a call first.” Dean watches as he leaves the room and heads outside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I toyed with a few ideas for this chapter ranging from it being a nice happy chapter to freaking Zachariah coming and causing a disaster in their lives, but ultimately I like the direction this is going. I've actually planned out a lot of the story in my head before falling asleep (these thoughts tend to keep me up for at least an extra half hour or so). It works out, though, because now I don't have to constantly wait for an idea to strike  
> Fun fact: I've actually gotten the NEXT chapter written out, too! I'll edit it and get it up a few days or so after the holidays. Maybe before then, who knows. I'm sometimes very impatient with uploading once I finish writing the chapters. It's currently 1AM and I'll probably post this chapter within the hour. I wish I could set a time for it to be automatically uploaded but alas there is not such function for that.  
> So, about this chapter, I really liked Cas standing up for himself after Dean sorta assumed he couldn't fight without his mojo. It's very season 4 Cas, dontcha think? I was imagining his voice to be similar to when he said "I pulled you out of Hell, I can throw you back in" from 0402.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yall ready for this

Castiel walks outside alreading pulling up Chuck’s contact and dialing it. He heads over by the Impala and leans on the hood of the car.

“Castiel,” Chuck greets.

“Chuck, I need to know: is there anyway we are getting out of this whole?” Castiel asks. He doesn’t clarify what he means. Chuck will know.

He hears a deep sigh coming from the other end of the line. “I don’t think so. I mean, it would be a fixed point in time, wouldn’t it?” Now it’s Castiel’s turn to sigh. He had feared as much. His shoulders slump down in disappointment. Dean, his Dean, had pointed this out before he left.

“So there was no point in me coming back, then? I can’t stop the Apocalypse from starting, I can’t stop Dean going to Hell, I can’t stop Sam from dying?” Castiel feels a wave of hopelessness crash into him.

“Not necessarily,” Chuck starts, making Castiel sit a bit straighter in attention. “I mean, you most likely can’t stop the Sam thing or Dean from making a deal, but if you kill Lilith  _ before _ Dean’s time runs out…”

“I can void the contract and he won’t have to go to Hell,” Castiel finishes with wonder. It could work, he realizes. “Thank you, Chuck,” he says earnestly. “Oh, one more thing,” Castiel says.

“Yeah?”

“Did you know Azazel would still be able to sense my angelic grace?” Castiel asks the prophet.

There is a pause before Chuck sighs and answers his question. “Yeah.” Castiel feels a sense of betrayal in his chest. “B-but I let you fall because you would have fallen anyway, somehow,” Chuck defends.

“What do you mean?”

“Castiel, you and I both know you have emotions no angel has. You are more faithful to humans, specifically the Winchesters, than you are to Heaven. Hell, you are  _ literally _ trying to stop the Apocalypse from ever starting, trying to save both of Winchesters from having to know the pain of both Hell and each other's deaths. Many angels have fallen for a lot less than any of that,” Chuck points out. Castiel thinks on this for a moment. Chuck does have a point. “I figured this way it was your choice to make, not Heaven's.” 

“Stopping the Apocalypse would also help avoid the deaths of thousands of angels and humans alike,” Castiel points out.

Chuck chuckles. “Yeah, but we both know that's not your number one priority.”

Castiel sighs and looks up towards the sky. “You're right. Well, thanks for letting me choose, then, I guess.”

Just before he hangs up Chuck says, “Oh, Castiel, I have to warn you: I had a vision of the three of you at Cold Oak…” Chuck trails off for a moment, his voice full of worry, and then continues. “Angels are going to be there. They’ve been keeping an eye on the place after Azazel was killed and when they notice you in the town…”

“Would warding myself form Angel's work, do you think?” Castiel ponders.

“Doesn't that just stop them from tracking you? If they are where you are they would probably notice.”

Castiel frowns. “You wouldn’t happen to know of a way to block memories would you?” Castiel asks.

“Huh?”

“I can’t risk them finding out about me being from the future,” he tells the prophet. 

“You know as well as me on that one. Sorry.”

Castiel heaves another sigh. “Right, thank you again.” He hangs up the phone and returns in to his pocket. He stays leaning on the Impala in silence trying to think of what to do. He then closes his eye and bows his head, doing something he hasn’t done much of in the past years.

“Father, I’m not sure if you are listening, but I need your help. Sam, Dean, and I are going to Cold Oak to help the gifted children and the prophet has informed me there will be angels.” Castiel pauses. “I don’t pray to ask for protection, I pray to ask your assistance in keeping certain things blocked from them. I have no doubt they will try to find out how I know about the Apocalypse and I can’t risk them knowing what I know about the future.” Castiel takes a deep breath. “I need your help, Father, to help me protect the ones I love.” Castiel stays like this, head bowed and eyes closed, for a few moments letting a soft breeze blow over him before he pushes himself off the car and heads back inside.

“You ready?” Dean asks. Castiel feels a deep sadness within him knowing what’s about to happen.

“No,” he says honestly, “though I don’t suppose I’ll ever be.” Dean gives him a sad sort of smile before he ushers him back out the door, Sam following close behind.

“I know you don’t want us to go through with this, but it’s better if we all go rather than Sammy going alone.”

Castiel just nods and gets into the back seat of the car. His grace feels infinitely heavier around his neck with the knowledge of what he will have to do. As Sam and Dean get in the car as well, Castiel toys with the idea of telling them about the angels. He knows he should, but he also knows Dean and Sam would demand he stay behind to avoid being caught. Castiel rolls his eyes at the thought. That would be just as effective as he was trying to convince them not to go at all. Either way, Castiel decides to wait. He’ll tell them when they are close.

 

The drive there is mostly in silence aside from Dean’s music playing. It’s when they are about fifteen minutes away from Cold Oak Castiel pulls his grace out from under his shirt, the glow causing Dean to look at him in the rearview mirror.

“What’re you doing?” he asks as he turns down the music slightly.

“I’m getting ready,” Castiel replies simply.

“You ain’t gonna need your mojo, Cas,” Dean says, glancing in the mirror then back to the road. “I’m sorry if what I said earlier -”

“No, Dean. I’m not taking my grace back because of that,” Castiel assures him. “I promise.”

“Cas, what’s really going on?” Sam questions with a worried tone.

“My contact, Chuck, told me angels are going to be there, waiting. Once I step foot in Cold Oak, they will be able to sense me there, regardless of whether or not I have my grace,” Castiel confesses. “Warding myself would do little in keeping my true identity from them.”

Dean angrily turns around to look at Castiel causing Sam to grab onto the wheel and snap out a quick, “Dean! The road!”

“You knew this whole time and you waited until  _ now  _ to tell us?” he angrily asks Castiel.

“Yes, Dean, because I knew you would try to stop me from going if you knew about the angels being there.”

“Damn right I would have!” Dean practically shouts. “You said it yourself: they will come to  _ kill you _ or they will take you back up to Heaven and get information from you somehow, which I assume means torture or something?”

“I’m sure they won’t kill me,” Cas says. “They need to know how I knew about their plans. And I’ve got it covered so they don’t find out.”

“Oh, you’ve got it figured out, huh?” Dean says with a sarcastic tone. “Because you seemed pretty damn worried about it not that long ago.”

“Yes, I have it figured out, Dean.” Castiel doesn’t tell him how he doesn’t one hundred per cent have it figured out. He only hopes his Father heard his prayer and decided to actually help out for once. Well, thrice. He did bring Castiel back to life two times already. “I’m probably going to be gone for a while,” Castiel starts. Both Sam and Dean are about to protest, but Castiel continues over them, “If you need help, find Chuck Shurley. He will probably be a bit skittish around the two of you, but he will help where you can. He is more than just a psychic, he is a prophet of the Lord,” Castiel explains. “If you are in desperate need of help and you’ve tried Chuck, summon the Trickster and let him know what’s going on. He is an ally and already knows I’m from the future, so he might help out.”

“The Trickster? That bastard died, Cas,” Dean says.

“No, he didn’t. His death was just a trick to get you guys to leave him alone,” Castiel informs.

“Wait, why are you defending this guy? He kidnapped you, remember?”

Castiel rolls his eyes. “Yes, Dean, I remember. Look, that isn’t important right now. Just don’t ask for his help unless you’ve tried other options. He doesn’t want any part in the Apocalypse, but he also doesn’t want the end of times to come. He’s having too much fun.”

“Oh, goody, so we have to make friends with a god who gets his kicks killing people,” Dean mutters under his breath, but loud enough for Castiel to hear. Castiel doesn’t say anything back.

“I’m sorry, Cas,” Sam says to him. “If I wasn’t so insistent on coming here…”

“Sam, it’s okay. It was probably unavoidable anyway. I do admire your caring nature for those in need. Just try to be careful, alright?” Castiel says. “I know how impulsive and reckless the two of you can be. When I come back - and I  _ will _ come back,” he states with intensity, “the both of you better be alive and well.”

The final five minutes to Cold Oak are among the most tense moments Castiel has ever experienced.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yall better BET this is gonna get a bit angsty. Ya think the boys ever get happiness for free? No because apparently the world hates them. But Also, I feel like there's no way the angels would find out about Azazel's death and NOT keep an eye on Cold Oak.  
> lmaoo you know how i said i was gonna upload this a few days after the holidays? Try a few months, huh. Ya see, first I got hella into ffxv and then I lost my spark for this story and anything I wrote was just awful. It didn't flow at all and I was getting frustrated. I mean, I did have this chapter written out when the other was posted, but I had to edit it and stuff.  
> I also wanted the next chapter to be written before uploading, but that didnt happen either. I'm currently very distracted thinking about the episode for next week (14x18) because like???? My soul is actually dying from that promo. Someone hit me up on tumblr (rbrewerx.tumblr.com) and cry with me about it. I have no friends who watch this show so I have nobody to vent my feelings to (well, nobody who understands. I vent to a friend, but she doesnt watch the show).  
> Anywho, I have no idea when the next chapter will be up, but I'll try (keyword _try_ ) to get it up sooner rather than later.

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be adding more tags as I go along.


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